Death Is For Other People
by RealaCarsona
Summary: A fix-it fic for the finale. Canon Divergence from when the elevator doors close behind the Master, picking straight up with Missy. What happens if Missy stands with the Doctor and finally earns his trust, leading to the Doctor getting his best friend back for real.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I am in two minds of whether I liked tonights episode or not but there is one part that I am reallly having an issue with, and so of course I turned to fanfiction to fix it!**

There were somethings you just didn't forget, Missy thought to herself as she heard her demented former self cackling as the lift door closed.

Death is for other people.

Grunting with the effort she pulled herself to her knees and reached inside her pocket to pull out a device that whirred and crackled as she dropped it to the ground hurriedly, hissing as she blew on her burnt fingers.

She hadn't been able to remember where it came from, but the gut feeling that one day her life would be taken by a laser device had lead to certain precautions, one of them being the disrupter now lying on the ground. It's core circuitry fried by the blast from the Master's screwdriver.

Her body had taken an unhealthy dose of the blast, but not enough to kill her as the Master believed, but enough to cause a significant decrease to her strength and agility until she healed.

Which was frustrating but not the end of the world, after all, it wasn't as though she hadn't expected a retaliation. There was no one she knew better than herself, whether she remembered this chunk of time or not.

Reaching for a sturdy looking tree branch, she hauled herself to her feet and began painfully making her way back towards the farm.

She had meant what she said, it was time for her to stand with the Doctor, at long, long last.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I didn't know if I was going to continue this, but I have missed writing and I am feeling particularly inspired so here goes, thank you to everyone who has followed and reviewed, please feel free to give me any ideas or constructive criticsm, and I will do my best to take it on board :)**

Following the sounds of battle, she managed to make it to the edge of the fighting, using her sonic umbrella to fry the old model cybermen from behind whilst carefully evading those equipped for fighting.

As she crept through the trees, Missy could just make out the Doctor, on his knees surrounded by cybermen, holding the sonic in both hands.

She opened her mouth to call out to him but that's when everything went read, an explosion ripping through the forest floor and throwing her backwards against a tree hard as fire raged around.

Missy didn't open her eyes again for a while, and when she did, the surrounding area was almost unrecognizable, charred beyond recognition.

Coughing she stumbled to her feet and edged towards where the Doctor was lying, dropping to her knees beside him and with a trembling hand reaching out to touch his chest, desperately hoping to feel the beat of at least one of his hearts.

Feeling nothing, she cried out, beating her fist against his chest angrily, after all their history he had gone and gotten himself killed just as she decided to join him, and he was never going to know that she had finally made the right choice.

It wasn't until she saw the droplets hitting her hand, that was still against his chest, that she realised she was crying again, as she knelt over the body of her only friend, her best friend. Her Theta.

"Thete." She whispered mournfully, touching his face gently, "What have you done to yourself, I'm so sorry I didn't come with you earlier… Maybe we could have avoided all of this. I promise I won't leave you now."

Feeling dizzy as the mounting injuries she had suffered finally started to catch up with her, she looked upwards, her vision blurring as one last cyberman staggered towards them.

She almost raised her umbrella again but paused, eyes squinting, "Bill?" Missy questioned softly, before passing out, one arm falling across the Doctor as she hit the ground beside him.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Ok so from this point I am going past the end of the episode, in this version, Bill and Heather brought both Time Lord's back to the Tardis and the Doctor woke up first, too preoccupied by not wanting to regenerate to realise that Missy was also there.**

 **So, he's done his thing outside, and had come back in realizing he must regenerate, but he's not going to just yet, he wants to stay as himself for just a while longer.**

Feeling guilty, the Doctor walked up the steps behind the console to see the long couch lining the wall, where Missy was lying, her breathing slow and even as her body recovered whilst she was unconscious.

He felt the Tardis' disapproving whir that it had taken him this long to notice that she was here.

"I know, I know." He told her, patting the handrail, "That was very bad of me, but I'm here now."

Crossing the walkway, he took a seat next to her, brushing the stray locks of hair back off her face, "Now how did you get here?" He asked softly, examining her face curiously, which was so peaceful as she slept, none of the madness bleeding through.

"No idea, how did you get here?" She mumbled, her Scottish accent thicker than usual as she woke up.

Opening her eyes, it seemed to click for her that he was alive, as the memory of feeling no heartbeat under her hand came back.

"Thete." She cried out, sitting up and yanking him roughly into a hug, her arms wrapping around him in a vice like grip.

Momentarily stumped by the use of his academy nickname, which he hadn't heard in a very long time, it took him a moment before he eventually returned her embrace, wrapping his long arms around her back a lot gentler than hers were wrapped around him.

"Koschei." He muttered softly, trying out how it felt in his mouth after so long since they had used those nicknames.

Missy laughed as she pulled back, her eyes gleaming, before she frowned and hit him in the shoulder not caring as he winced back. "You died, you idiot, I kill myself for you and you go and die before you can appreciate the gesture."

"You what?" The Doctor asked in confusion, his mind blank from the moment he had activated the sonic, not expecting to live past that moment.

"Well I stabbed myself in the back, literally. And then he shot me in the back, also literally, so that I wouldn't come and help you, not that that worked of course, after all no one cheats death like I do." She explained casually, as though she was remarking on the weather not an entirely insane crossing of her personal timeline.

Missy just laughed as the Doctor stared at her blankly, his mouth hanging partly open, tapping his chin gently. "I came back for you, and instead of a heroic return, instead I arrive just in time to watch you blow yourself up, you foolish man."

"You came back for me?" He asked slowly, watching her face carefully as she nodded, taking his hand.

"You are my friend, and I made a promise when I got back to you, that I'm not leaving you again."

For the first time in a long time, there wasn't even a hint of insanity in her eyes as she stared back at him evenly, her mind strong and clear as she waited for him to respond.

"I said that hope was a dangerous thing, I'm sorry Missy, I want to believe this so badly, but before you were fighting against just yourself, today doubled the intensity of that fight with the old Master back. How can I trust that this is real?" He asked her, a desperate edge to his voice, mixed with the genuine longing to just throw caution to the wind and fall into her arms.

Slipping a hand inside her coat, she pulled out a long thing blade, turning it over in her hands before passing it to him, "You can smell the blood on that can't you, it's his. I used it to kill him, triggering his regeneration into me. The next time you see the Master in the timeline that he is following, it will be at St Paul's pretending to be a robot when she kisses you."

The Doctor stared down at the knife in his hand, she was right, he could smell the blood on it, the blood of a Time Lord. And there was still a smudge of red near the base of the blade where she hadn't cleaned it properly.

Placing her hand over his, she squeezed it comfortingly, "When I was him, I once refused a regeneration to spite you. In this body, I caused his regeneration to help you. I want to be your friend again, I want to be better than I was. I am going to make mistakes, probably a lot of them, but all I can promise is to try my hardest to be worthy of your friendship and of your trust."

Missy spoke softly but earnestly, wanting him to believe her so badly.

When he looked back up, she could see how close he was to believing her, but their years of fighting where still holding him back and she could see the internal war raging as he fought with himself over what to do.

Sighing tiredly, she reached up to curl her finger around the back of his neck, drawing him closer.

"What are you-?" He started to protest before she shushed him.

"Let's start small." She whispered, leaning her forehead against his. "Just trust me for five minutes. Let's start with that."

Waiting for his small nod of agreement, she allowed the mental barriers around her mind to slip, letting him into her head for the first time in so many years, leading him to the memory of what had happened in the forest between her and her former incarnation.

 _It's ok Thete._ He heard, as he felt her mind engulfing his own, _Let me show you what happened so you can see that for once I did what was right, and that I did it for you._


	4. Chapter 4

Everything had been going splendidly up until the Tardis has shown him the message Bill had left behind, explaining what had happened to her and saying goodbye.

The Doctor hadn't taken it well and was currently ranting and raving as he paced around the console room, cursing himself and everything else around him about what had happened to her.

Not that Missy could understand exactly what he was so upset about, the squishy little human was better than she had ever been, more than she ever had the potential to be before.

Missy's theory was that the Doctor was only as angry as he was because he didn't save her himself, his hero complex was causing him just a little bit of grief at the thought that someone else had swooped in to save the day.

And as for the Tardis herself, Missy was sure that she was laughing at her bewilderment, the walls practically vibrated with the time machines mirth at her inability to grasp why the Doctor hadn't stopped his angry tirade since he had seen the message.

Eventually she snapped, storming into the room and catching hold of the front of his jacket, pulling him to a halt.

"What the hell are you doing man?" She cried out in frustration, "Your little pet is just fine, probably having the time of her life right about now. Maybe just try and appreciate her not being incredibly dead?"

The Doctor glared at her, "Let go of me Missy, I am very cross right now and I would hate to start another argument just when we've finally put all of our others behind us."

"Doctor." She sighed heavily, a hint of mockery in her patient smile, "You really must stop being so jealous when someone else takes your toys. Your little pet made the decision to go with the puddle, and I'm sure they're tremendously happy together. Your anger is rooted in selfishness, you know it is."

"I'm not angry, I'm worried about her." He defended, waving his hand towards the screen, where the image of Bill's message was still frozen, "She has no idea what she's getting into."

Missy smirked, smoothing down the collar of his shirt idly, "You just said yourself that you were cross dear, but it's ok, Bill has a smart head on her shoulders, she'll be fine. And you'll probably run into her again eventually, just have a little patience."

Letting out a long breath, the Doctor pulled out of her grasp and walked over the console, staring at the screen for a moment before hitting a button which switched off the message.

"And really, I thought you were better than forgetting about one of your, what do you call them again, ah yes, friends." She chuckled, "Because the egg shaped one got left behind and now you have the Tardis surely it's as simple as picking him up, unless you mean to deliberately strand him knowing that a Cyberman attack is just a few short years away from them."

Flicking another lever, the Doctor crossed over to a chair on the other side of the room, sitting and then putting his feet up on the side of the console, "Careful Missy, I might tell him that you care."

"Care?" Missy questioned, "Really darling, he was far more of my jailer than you ever were, I'd kill him myself if I didn't already know that it would make you very cross with me."

"Prove it." The Doctor grinned, gesturing to the controls, "I removed the bio lock, you can go back for him, or you can choose not to, but I'm going to finish my crisps." He laughed, picking up the abandoned packet from the beginning of this disastrous day.

Scowling, Missy watched him for a moment, before reluctantly placing a hand on a lever, "You know this doesn't mean I like him?"

"Of course not." The Doctor teased her, crunching on a crisp as her scowl deepened. He watched her carefully as she expertly moved around the console, half expecting her to try something devious, but instead she was true to her word doing the right thing once again and landing them back on the colony ship.

They had been landed for barely a minute when they heard the rapping on the Tardis doors.

"You might want to answer that." Missy rolled her eyes, "It sounds like he's trying to take those doors right off their hinges."

"Be nice." The Doctor warned her, as he headed for the doors, "There's a packet of crisps in it for you."

Missy stared at him blankly, "I'm practically wetting myself with excitement." She replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm as he swung open the doors.

Nardole nearly took the Doctor off his feet as he caught him up in a bear hug.

The look of pained acceptance on the Doctor's face had Missy cackling as she moved towards them.

Nardole frowned at her as she got closer, "I thought you left us all for dead, what are you doing here, and where's your evil twin?"

Missy just sighed, leaning against a hand rail and checking the non-existent watch on her wrist, "Well right about now, I'd expect she's trying on her first dress and figuring out lipstick. Although luckily, she's had the eyeliner down for a good few regenerations now."

"What happened?" Nardole questioned curiously, "He looked just fine when you two were running off together."

"I happened." Missy told him darkly, her eyes glinting dangerously, "We had a difference of opinion that was simple unreconcilable."

"Best way to torture a kitten?" Nardole snarked at her.

"Whether to stand with the Doctor or leave him for dead." Missy smirked, stopping Nardole dead in his tracks, who stared at her, trying to work out whether she was being serious or not.

The Doctor was the one who broke the silence, "She's telling the truth incidentally, also is this your version of being nice?" He questioned his best friend, who just rolled her eyes at him.

"Well I haven't had much practice since we were little boys on Gallifrey, I'm a tad rusty. And he started it." She responded, utterly unconcerned with the disapproving frown the Doctor was directing at her.

Missy knew full well that if she really did overstep he would warn her telepathically about it, until then he was quite content to let her run rampant and see how far she would go before pulling herself back.

If the Doctor was honest with himself, he was pleasantly surprised with how civil she was actually being, having not threatened anyone or been overly cruel to Nardole, she hadn't even called him an egg to his face yet. If he didn't know better, he could almost forget about all the regenerations between this one and her first body. It was so tempting to fall into their same old rhythms from when they were younger and for the first time in years there was very little actually stopping him.

"Right." Nardole muttered, brushing past the two of them and into the Tardis, "So what's the plan now then?"

The Doctor just looked at Missy who raised one eyebrow at him, "Is this another test?"

Just humming in the back of his throat, he nodded to her.

"Fine!" Missy smiled, waving her hand towards the door, "We go and collect all the squishy ones out there, load them up, dropping them off at the nearest habitable planet. Then come back and blow up the rest of the ship to avoid these Cybermen spreading any further."

"She's got a point." Nardole offered as the Doctor frowned when she suggested the destruction of the rest of the ship. "The Cybermen are a menace, it would be better if they were never allowed to leave the colony ship."

"See, comic relief agrees with me." Missy told him, "And if you want to avoid a light show then we can always just disable their reverse thrusters and send them into the black hole."

After a moment the Doctor nodded, "Ok then, that's what we'll do."

Missy smirked as she moved around the console, leaning down to whisper in Nardole's ear as she passed, "We may have to sneak some explosives past him, just letting it drift into the black hole is incredibly dull don't you think?"


	5. Chapter 5

It was with some surprise that the Doctor had realised that some habits just crept up on you.

After so long of swearing that he hated being tied down in one place he found himself easily returning to Earth without any conscious thought once they had settle the human survivors from the colony ship and dealt with the lingering cyber threat.

Missy had disappeared immediately into the Tardis to sulk because he had caught her midway through rigging the upper deck and the fuel shafts with explosives as he was disabling the reverse thrusters.

As the Tardis landed back in his university office, Nardole snuck a look at the monitor before smiling knowingly.

"Stop doing that with your face." The Doctor glared at him, slipping past him to head to the doors, "I left my good mug in my office."

"And after so long, Earth just feels like home to you?" Missy supplied from the other side of the console, before brushing past and through the doors, taking in his office for the first time, "Now then Doctor, it's so human of you, you even have little pictures on your desk. How cute!"

He rolled his eyes at her amusement, leaning against the Tardis and watching as she practically danced around the room, picking things up and annoyingly moving them completely out of order.

Glancing back over her shoulder, she noticed the conflicted expression on Nardole's face and waved her hand dismissively, "Don't worry, I'll go lock myself in the vault for the night in a minute, but this opportunity is simply too good to resist."

The Doctor frowned, having not put much thought into what would happen once they were back.

The distress he was feeling obviously bled through their telepathic connection, which they had left open, because Missy turned back to him, suddenly serious as she eyed him carefully.

 _Are you alright?_ He felt rather than heard her say.

Nardole watched them curiously as they both seemed to just shut down, staring into each other's eyes intently.

 _I hadn't considered what we would do now we're back here._ She felt the Doctor's mental whisper brushing past the edges of her mind.

Pushing feelings of calm and serenity towards him, she replied softly. _It's just a room, and it's also where all my clothes and my bed are. I will go down there tonight and in the morning, you can bring us some breakfast and we can talk about what happens next. But I won't have you breaking a vow because of me. If you're not there to watch me then the vault's as good a place as any for me to practice my piano. Just…_

He felt the small spike of panic through their connection and jumped on it quickly before she could pull away, _Just what?_ He questioned her.

There was a moment of silence as she weighed up her next words. _Just don't leave me. Six months is a very long time to be alone, I don't think I can do that again._

 _I promise._

With those last silent words, Missy came alive again, bounding forwards to tap Nardole on the head teasingly. "Good night then humpty dumpty, make sure he brings me pancakes in the morning, and remind him to just bring down the entire tin of syrup."

Nardole watched the Doctor as Missy skipped past them out of the room, disappearing, hopefully towards the vault.

"What are you doing?" He questioned the Doctor, who hadn't moved from his position leaning against the Tardis.

The Doctor gave a small smile, looking across at his desk where she had childishly tipped over the picture of River, "Trusting her."

Nardole spluttered, his face going red as he expressed his outraged at the Doctor's foolishness. "You can't be serious, she's probably gone to uproot the Queen out of Buckingham Palace!"

"Nardole," The Doctor interrupted him patiently, "Where's your phone?"

Checking his pockets quickly, the other man was surprised to find the small device missing from the pocket he kept it in.

Drawing out his own, the Doctor held his screen up so Nardole could see it, showing the picture text from Nardole's phone.

It was a selfie of Missy, pouting at the red light on the inside of the vault door that indicated it was securely locked.

"She took it when as she tapped you on the head." The Doctor explained, chuckling at the frustrated glare Nardole was giving his phone.

"Yes well, you're going to have to have a conversation with her about boundaries." Nardole sniffed in annoyance.

The Doctor just laughed, "I've only just about covered the don't murder people conversation, you might be waiting a while for her to respect your personal space, if she ever does at all."


	6. Chapter 6

The Doctor felt remarkably light hearted as he keyed in the entry code for the vault, for the first time he was genuinely excited to be opening the doors, knowing that the Missy he had always hoped was there was waiting for him on the other side.

As he stepped through he momentarily froze at the absence of the Time Lady's psychic presence which usually made the room feel as though it was practically vibrating with energy, but he relaxed as he felt the edge of her mind brush against his, instinctively reaching out as she slept.

Moving around the centre containment field where her piano was, he saw the Time Lady lazily draped over a chaise, one hand resting on the book that was open face down on her stomach.

Dragging over an armchair, he left it next to her before going to the small sink he had installed at the back of the room and filling the kettle with water to make them both a cup of tea.

He felt her wake up, her mind sharpening as she pulled together the streams of unconscious thought that had been snaking outwards whilst she was asleep.

As her shields went up she nearly pulled completely back into herself, but at the last moment she paused, before allowing her bond with the Doctor to remain active as she sat up and tossed aside the book she had been holding carelessly.

"You're early." She chastised him, her voice raspy with sleep, her Scottish accent accentuated as she stretched out like a cat before twisting so she was lying on her side as she watched him make the beverages.

Nodding to the paper bag he had dropped on the armchair, he smiled, "Pancakes, as you requested Koschei."

Smirking as she reached for the bag, she raked her fingers through her hair roughly, frowning at the knots she found there. "So, we're feeling nostalgic today then Theta?" She chuckled, before narrowing her eyes at him accusingly, "Are you not forgetting something?"

With a smirk of his own, he reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and tossed her a tin which she caught easily.

Grinning, she opened the lid of the Styrofoam pancakes box before pausing again, "And how do you expect me to open this tin Doctor, am I prising it off with my teeth?"

Walking over to join her, he placed her mug on the small side table before handing her the spoon he had been using to stir the tea, "Of course not, but I wasn't done with the spoon."

Humming contently, Missy prised off the lid off the golden syrup before upending the entire thing into the pancakes box, rolling her eyes at the Doctor's disapproving frown, "Spare me your morality, they're pancakes, not people."

"What you've done is an abomination." The Doctor responded, an amused smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

Missy just laughed, "I could make the same accusation of you and tea, I know full well how much sugar you poison yours with. It's a good thing we're Time Lords dear, otherwise your dentist bills would be astronomical."

He just shook his head dismissively and relaxed back in the chair, letting her eat in peace.

He had learned very quickly that she still liked peace and quiet to enjoy her food, it was a habit that had carried over from when they were children. They had often sat in companionable silence during meals, with only the brushing of their minds against one another's to remind the other they were even still there.

After she set aside the empty box, the Doctor offered her a napkin to clean the remnants of the syrup off her fingers.

"And how is the egg shaped one taking everything that's happened over the last few days?" Missy asked curiously, tossing the napkin back into the paper bag.

"He thought you were going to commit regicide last night." The Doctor told her, leaning his feet against the cushioned side of the chaise, "I think him trusting you, if he ever does, is a very long way off yet."

Smirking Missy waved him off, "Well that's ok then isn't it. Because there's only one person's opinion that I have ever cared out."

"You own."

"Hilarious Doctor." She deadpanned, "My sides are splitting with laughter. Also, I'm just a tiny bit offended that you think so lowly of me."

The Doctor just smiled, "Remind me again how many worlds you have conquered?"

"Are we counting return journeys after all those who knew my face are long dead, or after I changed my face?" She asked him, her eyes sparkling with amusement as he frowned disapprovingly.

"You can't take this much pleasure in things like that anymore." The Doctor told her seriously, "How are you going to convince other people you've changed when you still speak of your planet conquering days so fondly?"

Missy sighed heavily, resting her chin on her hand as she regarded him for a moment, "And who is it you want me to be convincing, Nardole already likes me, even if he is still in denial."

Eyes widening at the thought that she might believe that, he shook his head quickly, "No he doesn't, please tell me that you aren't truly deluding yourself into thinking that."

Laughing at his bewildered expression, Missy slapped his arm lightly, "Don't be an idiot Doctor. Nardole has no taste, of course he can't see how utterly adorable I am."

"You're many things Missy, but I'm not sure that I'd call you that."

"Still…" She mused quietly, before refocusing, "Regardless, you didn't answer my question, who is it I'm meant to be convincing of my redemption and genuine desire not to kill everyone just because it's fun."

"I wouldn't word it like that to people," The Doctor muttered, before shaking his head, "U.N.I.T. for starters though."

Missy scowled at him in annoyance, "Why the hell do I have to do that? You can't be serious; do you truly think that's going to go well for anyone?"

"What I think is that I spend a lot of time on Earth and I don't want to be constantly worried that you're about to be shot in the back or arrested. Imagine getting murdered over fish and chips?" He asked her earnestly, "Does that really sound like an experience you want to go through?"

"So what? You're going to take me on a little field trip to apologize for all their little toy soldiers that I've killed?" Missy asked mockingly, still not seeming to grasp that he was serious about it.

"I went to McDonald's for you!" He pointed to the empty paper bag, proudly displaying the golden M logo. "The least you can do is say sorry to Kate at least, you threw her out a plane!"

"And did she, or did she not survive?" Missy rolled her eyes, groaning when he just kept staring at her with that ridiculously hopeful expression on his face. "Fine, but you're going to owe me a lot more pancakes for doing this."


	7. Chapter 7

Nardole jumped at the sight of Missy sitting behind the Doctor's desk as he walked into the office to deliver the students latest essays, as much as he might scorn them to their faces, the Doctor did have a fondness for the little pudding brains who were trying so desperately to grasp what he was teaching.

"Where's the Doctor?" He asked her, recovering quickly, but not quickly enough for Missy to not notice.

"Oh here and there," She waved her arm lazily, her black boots resting on the edge of the desk, "He'll be back soon and then he's taking me for a morality lesson." She made a face at the last part, looking to Nardole as though she expected sympathy.

Stepping closer to her as he frowned, Nardole looked towards the corner where the Tardis usually sat, finding it empty, "And he just left you in here alone?"

Sighing dramatically, Missy held up her wrist, showing him the ugly looking bracelet she was wearing, "We compromised, the vault is locked at night and at all other times I have to be wearing this so he knows where and when I am. He didn't feel right keeping me down there so much after I literally killed myself for him." She explained, fiddling with the heavy device irritably.

"Yes, well, I'm just here to deliver these and then I'll-"

Missy sat up in interest, leaning forwards and reaching out her hand, "What are those?"

Making a quick decision that she really couldn't do much harm with a first-year university essay on black holes, he handed over the top one. "The Doctor's students had an essay due this morning, I collected them from the office because he never seems to remember to mark them if I don't."

"Theta always did have a soft spot for children," She muttered to herself, scanning the first page of the essay, "Of any species. Do you happen to have a copy of the mark scheme lying around?" Missy directed at Nardole, already fishing in the desk drawers for a red biro.

When the Doctor walked out of the Tardis after landing back in his office, he stared openly at Missy and Nardole, who for the first time seemed to be in agreement on something.

They were standing over the desk, looking down in disgust at whatever was lying there.

"What are you two doing?" He asked, making Nardole jump and Missy smirk, who had felt his presence the moment he arrived.

"Human minds really are primitive aren't they Doctor." She replied in answer, gesturing with the red pen he used for marking, "They can't even get the simplest concepts on paper without making word salad. It would be almost pathetically impressive if it wasn't so infuriating."

Looking at the pile of papers on his desk, he frowned at the two of them, "Have you been doing my marking?"

Nardole nodded, showing him the two piles they had made, one much smaller than the other. "The small pile is the ones who got anywhere close to grasping the theory you taught in the lecture."

Snatching the pen from her hand, the Doctor ushered Missy out of his chair and quickly scanned through a few of the papers they had marked. Surprisingly she had done it seriously, although the argument could be made that she was being a little too harsh on them.

"You know I might have to get you to do my marking more often." He remarked, lips quirking into a smile when Missy made a face at him.

"I thought the plan was to get me to stop killing people, not cause it." She growled, "You would have to find some half competent students before I would even consider putting myself through this again."

Chuckling he placed the paper aside and nodded to the Tardis, "Are you ready?"

"Ready to march into U.N.I.T. and get myself killed so you can feel morally superior to me? When aren't I ready for that?" She tossed back at him as she walked into the Tardis, running her fingers over the console as she waited for the Doctor and Nardole to catch up with her.

"You're doing what?" Nardole shouted, as he hurried after them, stopping at the edge of the console, "Surely taking her into a building where everyone hates her and they're all armed with guns is just a little risky?"

"I've got a plan for that." The Doctor assured his dismissively, piloting the Tardis as he they dematerialised from his office and landed in the heart of U.N.I.T. headquarters seconds later.

"Which is?" Nardole pushed.

"Missy won't leave the Tardis. I'm going to go out, smooth things over and then bring Kate in here." The Doctor explained with a proud smile, because for once he had an actual plan that would work and not fall apart seconds after its initiation.

Nardole just rolled his eyes, and pointed towards the Tardis doors, which were wide open, "If that was your plan then you may need to rethink."

Cursing in Gallifreyan, the Doctor scrambled for the door, making it out in time to see a soldier put a gun against Missy's head.

For her part, Missy was completely unconcerned about the impending doom she was inviting with her recklessness, checking over her manicure as she saw in one of the swivel chairs that she had presumably stolen from someone's desk and dragged into the centre of the room.

"Doctor!" Kate cried out in relief as she saw him, having been concerned when the Tardis had arrived and it had been the Master who stepped out. "Would you mind telling us what is going on? And why you have brought her here?" She demanded, an accusatory tone to her last question.

"He's all about the redemption these days." Missy called out from where she was sitting, having produced a nail file, which she was using, seeming intent on getting her index fingers nail just right.

"Redemption?" Kate questioned warily, eyeing her men who had taken up positions around the room, all ready to fire on Missy at the slightest provocation.

The Doctor twisted his fingers together, feeling almost ridiculous at having to explain this to humans who couldn't possibly understand what was between Missy and himself. "Missy's being better now. Not killing people or enslaving civilisations just because she can."

Kate's mouth hung open as she looked between the two Time Lord's, one of whom was still acting completely disinterested in the conversation, and the other who looked as though all his Christmas' had come at once as he looked at the other member of his species.

"She's being better?" Kate asked coldly, frowning at the Doctor's eager nod, "Not good enough, she doesn't get a free pass because she's your bizarre frenemy. Not even six months ago she took control of all the planets aeroplanes and used them to threaten us. She has killed and terrorised the people of Earth and now what? She's just said she's sorry and all's forgiven?"

"Eighty years." Missy said softly, abandoning her nails and instead looking at Kate, "There is no just about this situation. I have spent eighty years being pulled apart piece by piece, being shown exactly how many mistakes I have made in my very long life. The crimes against Earth don't even make up a tenth of that."

Kate stared at her, "And that's supposed to make us all feel better, because you've treated other planets worse than you've treated us?"

Missy frowned, as though she hadn't expected Kate to need more explanation, and her eyes flicked to the Doctor for a moment before she looked back at the human in front of her.

"Humans feel each other feel like we can Kos, you know this." The Doctor told her patiently, watching warily for any sign that Kate was about to order Missy killed, but otherwise not intervening, it was important that Missy cross this hurdle on her own.

Sighing, Missy waved her hand, frustrated that she couldn't just show Kate, but the Doctor was right, humans just weren't equipped for telepathy like Gallifreyans were.

Standing up, she almost laughed aloud as every person in the room jumped, but stopped herself just in time, knowing it wouldn't help the situation in the slightest.

"I was sentenced to death, the Doctor spared me, but the condition was that I learn to change. And I have, in the ways that matter I have. Not for ulterior motive, but because my best friend asked me to." She explained slowly, watching Kate's face for any sign that she was feeling any kind of desire not to shoot her.

Fingers twitching over the bracelet on her wrist she held it up slowly for the leader of U.N.I.T. to see, "I cannot leave, cannot do anything with his approval and he has an impenetrable vault ready for the times when he has to go somewhere without me."

The Doctor watched as she began to pace backwards and forwards, growing increasingly agitated and frustrated with the unyielding looks on the humans faces as they all stared at her distrustfully.

He was about to step in when Missy suddenly stilled, looking back at Kate with her head tilted to the side, carefully considering something.

There was a moment of silence and then the two words that none of the human's present had ever believed could come out of the Master's mouth.

"I'm sorry."

Kate just stared, the coldness gone and replaced by a look of complete and utter confusion. "You're what?" She asked eventually.

"I said I'm sorry." Missy repeated patiently, "It was wrong of me to throw you out of a plane, and I am glad that you aren't a pancake somewhere in the British countryside."

Wincing slightly at her wording, the Doctor held his breath as he waited for Kate to say something, anything, in response.

Eventually, she let out a humourless chuckle, "Did that physically hurt you to say?" She asked quietly, as a small smile played at the edges of Missy's mouth.

"It was," Missy drawled, "Less than pleasant."

"If you ever hurt anyone on Earth again, he won't be able to save you from me."

Missy offered her hand, along with an amused grin, "I knew there was a reason I liked you."

After a moment's hesitation, Kate Stewart took a deep breath and shook it.

 **A/N: Hey guys, thank you for reading :) If you have a minute please leave a super quick review, and if you have any ideas or suggestions I am more than excited to hear them!**


	8. Chapter 8

Stepping away from the Time Lady, Kate deliberately ignored the questioning looks from her people and instead faced the Doctor.

"Since you're here, you may as well help us out on a little problem we're having, I believe you've already visited the Trap Street in London." She told him.

The Doctor scowled at her, nodding for her to continue.

"There's been a number of attacks around London, all caused by different species, we believe that it may be the creatures on the street doing this." Kate explained gently, aware that it was an especially sore subject for the Doctor.

Frowning, the Doctor sighed, "And have you spoken to their mayor yet? Surely Mayor Me has something to say about these attacks?"

"Your mire/human hybrid?" Missy questioned, from where she had sat back down in the swivel chair, spinning idly with her legs thrown up on the arm, still receiving side glares from just about everyone in the room.

It was Nardole who answered her, "That's the one, since the Doctor's memory wipe-"

Missy suddenly sat up straight, narrowing her eyes at Nardole before looking back at the Doctor. "The what?!"

The Doctor had less than a second to brace himself before she was inside his head, sweeping through his memories and becoming increasingly concerned with the many gaps she found.

Breaking off her psychic invasion of his mind, she growled under her breath, "I did not go through all the trouble of setting you up with little miss control freak for you to wipe all memory of her."

"You did what?" It was the Doctor's turn to question her, but she immediately withdrew, throwing up her mental shields so fast that it caused an instant headache with the sudden severing of their connection.

"Now, now Doctor." She chastised him, a little of the mania creeping back into her eyes as she stalked forwards, "You weren't about to go digging through my memories now where you?"

Smirking she waved a hand dismissively, "Don't try to deny it, of course you were. But I'm not a fool, you would never have forgotten her, not for all the universe. So the question becomes, what was so important that it caused you to abandon part of yourself?"

"I think I spoke to her, afterwards," He muttered quietly, noting how Missy's eyes widened a fraction, confirming to him that she really had as little idea what had actually happened as he did, "They trapped me in my confession dial, and then brought me to Gallifrey."

"You didn't." Missy shook her head, a suspicion growing of what he could have got up to on Gallifrey that would make a mind wipe necessary, "Please tell me you didn't break the laws of time to save a human pet, even one as impressive as Clara."

The Doctor shook his eyes, shaking his head slightly as though trying to shake the memory loose. In the beginning the gaps had held more form, allowing him to see better what had been there. But with time they had faded and he only had blurred impressions of the things that had happened.

"I think I might have." He admitted eventually.

Laughing gleefully, Missy clapped her hands, "Did I not say we weren't so different Doctor, you were never one for the rules either."

"What I think I did is not something to celebrate Missy," He snapped, "You know the risks, I caused an aberration in time."

Giving him an almost comforting smile she shook her head, "The universe didn't implode and you undid a tragic loss, time may never heal properly, but the damage you caused is bearable, for now at least."

Sensing that they had come to the end of the back and forth they had become engaged in, Nardole cleared his throat, gesturing back to the whole of U.N.I.T. who had been watching the entire exchange with interest.

Brushing off the previous conversation, Missy grinned at Kate, "So this Trap Street. Why not just storm the place?"

"Avoiding murder today Missy." The Doctor muttered.

"It's not murder if they started it, everyone knows that." Missy muttered back out the side of her mouth.

Kate coughed sheepishly, eyeing the Doctor guiltily, "We already tried that and it didn't work."

Ignoring the disappointed look on the Doctor's face at his humans going against his strict moral reasoning, Missy titled her head to the side curiously, "Why not?"

"Admittance has to be granted, you get stopped at the entrance if you try to just walk in." Kate explained.

Missy hummed in the back of her throat before grabbing the Doctor's arm and hauling him towards the Tardis.

"Where are you going?" Kate called after them, the soldiers closest to the Tardis half raising their weapons, unsure whether they should attempt to stop her or not.

"We'll go have a look." Missy called back over her shoulder, as the Doctor shook of her hand and pushed her into the Tardis ahead of him, ushering Nardole after him.

"We will." He reassured Kate, "And I promise I won't let Missy terrorise the streets of London on the way."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I was nervous about this chapter, because it turned out very differently to how I had expected it to, which is why it wasn't posted last night. I wanted to sleep on it and see if I still agreed with what I'd written. But I think what happens is important and had to happen sooner or later, but I'll let you guys be the judge :)**

Missy frowned down at her feet, which appeared to be stuck to the floor, she could feel the crackle of the energy that held her there.

Looking over at the Doctor and Nardole she simply shrugged her shoulders, "What now?"

"Now we wait for the Mayor." The Doctor answered bitterly, eyes flicking to the bend in the street where they could hear the clicks of heels on cobbles as someone approached.

Openly staring, Missy sized up the girl in front of her with interest, intrigued to see her stiffen slightly at the sight of the Master on her door step. So, she knew who Missy was then.

But that was nothing compared to the look on Me's face when she saw the Doctor standing just past Missy's shoulder.

"And I thought I was the scary one." Missy muttered gleefully, as the immortal crossed her arms over her chest and regarded them coolly, having quickly pulled together a mask of indifference.

"Doctor." Me greeted politely, playing the role of the Mayor to perfection as she treated him like any other guest to the street. "May I ask what your business is here?"

"Not to kill you, so you can relax on that front, for now." He told her stepping forward, the cobbles at his feet sparking as he did so, "What, you thought that little trick would work on me twice?" He asked her when she started, the men flanking her almost attacking until she hurriedly waved them back, before releasing Missy and Nardole.

Advancing eagerly towards the Mayor with a predatory smirk, Missy stopped just short, leaning in to study her.

To her credit, Me refused to be intimidated, standing tall and allowing Missy's invasion of her personal space.

"Well Doctor," Missy told him eventually, "You have outdone yourself this time, what a wonderful… abomination." She giggled, taking Me's arm and starting into the street, "Now dear, we would like to ask you a few questions about some murders."

The Doctor and Nardole walked behind the two of them, who seemed to be having a conversation in hushed whispers, as Me led them towards her own house on the street.

"What do you think they're whispering about?" Nardole asked the Doctor, who shook his head helplessly, a conflicted expression etched onto his features.

"I don't know, and that makes me very nervous."

Nardole sighed, "And just when you thought you could trust her."

Pulling Nardole to a halt, the Doctor glared at him fiercely, "I would avoid saying things like that to her, or she just might do something she won't regret. And we have no idea what they're discussing, it could be harmless."

Shaking off his arm, Nardole just rolled his eyes, "And what would your wife say about you threatening me sir?" He asked with a smirk.

"If River were here she would be doing it herself." The Doctor informed him, a small smile appearing as Nardole's face fell. "Regardless, Missy might well just be fawning over her because she has a soft spot for abominations and people who don't belong anywhere."

As they reached the door Missy and Me had just disappeared into they followed hurriedly, catching up to them in the living room, where a set of plush sofas where arranged in front of a roaring hearth.

Missy had already claimed the biggest for herself, throwing herself down and lounging across it.

Me had taken the armchair opposite her, which left the Doctor and Nardole to share the smaller sofa in the middle.

"I assume Missy has filled you in on why we're here?" The Doctor asked Me, deciding to proceed as though he wasn't even curious about what they were really talking about.

"She mentioned it." Me replied softly, sinking back in her chair, watching him carefully. "And you're here to ask me if I ordered those attacks, or worse, committed the murders myself?"

"Did you?"

Missy eyed him sharply, surprised at how much tension was crackling between the two of them, "Come now children, I'm sure we can all get along just fine." She sang, grinning at them both.

"Not now Koschei!" The Doctor snapped at her automatically, before he could stop himself.

Eyes glinting dangerously, Missy sat up, leaning towards him as she hissed under her breath, "You catch more flies with honey dear, isn't that what you always try and tell me. Perhaps you should take your own advice."

"What were the two of you whispering to each other about, something I need to worry about?" The Doctor growled back without thinking, irritated by the fact that she made sense but his frustration and anger towards the hybrid sitting across from him was clouding his judgement.

Sitting back, Missy threw back her head and laughed at him, looking over at Me. "Less than a minute, I believe you owe me money."

"You think this is a game?" He asked her, "What am I supposed to make of your secret little conversations with someone who's killed one of my friends?"

"I've killed your friends." Missy told him, as though that should cancel out how angry he was with Me, rather than just turn his attention fully on to her.

Nardole shook his head, "I don't think that's helpful." He told Missy.

Rolling her eyes, she started again, "Doctor-"

"No, you listen to me," He cut her off, "I want to know what you were talking about and I want to know right now, otherwise you can go straight back to the vault."

Eyes narrowing sharply, Missy stood up as he did, so they were stood practically nose to nose, "Threatening me now are we Doctor? I didn't say anything to her that would cause you any intentional harm or hurt." She told him, sounding as honest as she was capable of, which wasn't enough for the Doctor, knowing how much of an expert manipulator she was.

"Not good enough, tell me." He pressed.

"Is a little trust too much to ask for?" She threw out flippantly, turning away towards the fire.

"Yes." The single word answer came out colder than he had intended it to, but he didn't take it back, his anger leading to an unfounded paranoia that he wasn't quite capable of pushing aside.

Nardole watched silently, surprising himself by feeling sympathetic towards Missy, who's shoulders had slumped as she faced away from them. Despite what the Doctor had said outside, it was blindingly clear that he didn't know how to trust Missy yet, as much as he genuinely wanted to. They had spent so long fighting that it was going to take time for them to learn how to be friends again.

"I told her to avoid any mention of Clara, and not to answer your questions, no matter how much you pushed." Missy told him softly, still not looking back at him.

Still fuelled by frustration and anger, he kept going, "Why would you do that?" His voice harsh as he shouted the question.

"Because one of us has to remember that we're Time Lord's!" Missy screamed back at him, spinning on her heel and shoving him backwards, "There are consequences to everything we do, we have rules for a reason, and you have thrown them all out of the window! Do you have any idea how badly I want to cause mayhem with what I know, let you tear apart the web of time and dance through the destruction that comes next? But you went and made me care! So how dare you stand there and criticise me for doing exactly what you have told me for the last eighty years that you want me to do!"

The anger was suddenly drained away and all that was left was guilt for his hasty overreaction as he stared regretfully at the unshed tears that Missy was holding back.

When he reached out to touch her arm she jerked back out of the way.

"I'm going back to the Tardis. Don't worry," She sneered, holding up the tracking bracelet so he could see, "You'll be able to see I told the truth, no trust required."

Missy stormed out before he could say anything else.


	10. Chapter 10

The Doctor didn't return to the Tardis until hours after Missy stormed out of Me's house, he hadn't known how to approach her after the obvious hurt he had caused. And he didn't bother checking the tracker she was wearing either, knowing that he would find her exactly where she had said she would be, once he got up the courage to actually go looking.

For the first time ever, when the Doctor walked into the Tardis it felt wrong, as though he was an intruder.

Sighing regretfully, he laid his hand on the console, which seemed to vibrate angrily under his fingers. "I know, I made a mistake."

If a time machine could roll its eyes, the Doctor knew that's what she would be doing, not only because he hurt his friend, but because of his short sightedness of what could happen if he pushed too far for answers on something he had deliberately forgotten for a reason.

"Missy was right, and so are you, this is something I need to leave alone, at least for now." He told her quietly, running his fingers gently across the surface. "Now I know you're probably helping her hide, but I need to speak to her, so will you help me old girl? I promise I'll make this right."

The gut instinct that he needed to go down to the engines swept over him and he smiled in thanks, before quickly hurrying off down the corridor.

He lightened his footsteps as he got closer and carefully shielded his mind, not wanting her to sense him and run before he got the chance to talk to her.

Rounding the corner to the section the Tardis had pointed him to he stopped warily, unable to see the Time Lady.

After a moment, he heard a clang and a heavy Scottish accent cursing angrily as Missy slid out from underneath a computer panel, a layer of grease clinging to her arms and clothing, with another smear across her cheek.

At some point since she had gotten back, she had changed into a pair of dark purple trousers and a long blue shirt that had the cuffs rolled back to the elbows. Her hair had been brushed out and then tied back into a simple pony tail to keep it off her face.

"If you want me to fix this so badly then the least you could do is stop electrocuting me." She told the Tardis, hands on hips, a fond smile creeping onto her face as the screen just flashed at her noncommittedly.

Coughing slightly, he took a step closer, "Missy?"

The smile disappeared, and she turned away, seemingly about to leave.

Darting forwards he caught her wrist, "Missy wait, please."

Pulling free, she turned back around, staring at him for what felt like forever, before eventually lying back down and sliding herself back underneath the panel.

"I need to borrow your screwdriver." She demanded, holding out her hand expectantly until he dropped the sonic into it.

As the buzzing began whilst she continued working, he sat down with his back against the panel.

"I'm sorry." He told her eventually.

"It's fine." Came the reply, sounding cold and unfeeling.

The Doctor just sighed, "No, no it's not. You were right, I'm a hypocrite, and you were right to do what you did. And I knew it was wrong as I was saying the things I did, I just didn't know how to stop."

The sonic stopped its buzzing and then suddenly she was back out and sitting in front of him. "Do you think I don't understand it?" She asked wryly, "It's taken the last eighty years for me to really start trusting you again. You've only really had the last week to start believing that I am trustworthy in return. I get it, but that doesn't change how much it hurts." Missy told him hesitantly, choosing her words carefully.

"Things used to be so much easier between the two of us." The Doctor muttered, frustration ringing in his voice. "What happened?"

"I went insane, you ran away, I tried to kill you, you tried to kill me. We have spent most of our lives since we left Gallifrey, locked in a constant cycle of being at each other's throats." She told him, twisting so they were sat side by side, staring at the Tardis wall in front of them, which was pulsing slightly.

There was a long silence that stretched out between them until the Doctor finally gave his whispered confession.

"I don't know what we are without that."

Missy just shook her head helplessly, "I don't either."

"So, what do we do now?" He asked her tiredly.

"I want to be your friend again, that was true. And I know it's a lot to ask and it's going to be hard, but I need you to trust me, trust that I'm not going to hurt you. Just that. No matter what else I do wrong, no matter where else I fall, I need you to trust that you are the one person I will never hurt again." Missy told him seriously.

With a small smile, the Doctor turned his head so their eyes met, "I can promise to try, I may misstep but I will never forget what happened today. I am so sorry Koschei."

Leaning her head against his shoulder, she hummed contently, "Then I forgive you, but be warned Theta, if you do it again I won't just walk away, I'm probably going to slap you."

"If I do it again, I'll probably let you." He chuckled.

He felt tugging at the edges of his mental shields and let them fall away as she reached out for his mind, there were parts of her memories still locked off to him, but he no longer begrudged that, knowing she was doing it for the right reasons and not to spite him.

With the return of their psychic connection, he could see just how much their argument had hurt her which made him wince slightly, but he could also see how honest and genuine her desire for him to trust her was.

He relished in that feeling of certainty, appreciating just how open Missy was being, even for a species with the ability for telepathy, Time Lord's usually held a lot of themselves back, but almost anything he could want from Missy's mind she offered freely. The only exception being those few short, in terms of their life spans, memories which had carefully been tucked away.

"So, have you been down here the entire time since you got back?" The Doctor asked her curiously, having not realised she had still been doing repairs to the Tardis after telling him that the list of priority repairs was completed.

Nodding slightly, she gestured around the room, "This entire section needed rewiring and there were some parts that needed replacing entirely, but luckily you have some long-forgotten storerooms hidden away that I raided earlier. The panel here is still glitching and giving false readouts, which is what I was working on when you arrived."

"No wonder the Tardis was so angry at me when I came in, she must be worried I'm going to make you want to leave before you finish fixing her up." He laughed.

Missy chuckled, holding out her hands so he could see the minor marks from the electrical burns she had received, "Well if you could ask her to stop zapping me that would be much appreciated."

Running her fingers over her palm in sympathy, he tugged at the edge of the shirt she was wearing, "A little modern for you this, isn't it Missy, or is the Mary Poppins look finally becoming dated."

"Never." She told him gleefully, "But I am not wearing a corset to go crawling around the inner workings off a Tardis, especially if no one's around to appreciate the grace and posture that would require."

"Well I must admit, I quite like it." He told her lightly, "It makes you look more relaxed and at ease."

Humming in the back of her throat, she just pressed closer against his side, shushing him when he tried to speak.

So they just sat there in a comfortable silence until Nardole came to find them hours later, enjoying the calming presence of each other's company.


	11. Chapter 11

Nardole was still scowling at the two Gallifreyans as they stood around the screen in the main console room.

After Missy had stormed out the Doctor had also disappeared, but in the complete opposite direction, and he had been left alone to have a very awkward conversation with Mayor Me, who seemed to delight in his frustration.

And then when he had finally returned to the Tardis after failing to find the Doctor anywhere else, he had found the two of them staring off into nothing lying in the middle of one of the engine rooms, seemingly with not a care in the world.

Missy in particular, found his annoyance at the whole situation positively hysterical and began laughing again every time she caught sight of his face.

And the Doctor was absolutely no help in stopping her, because he was too focused on the information Nardole had managed to bring back to notice that Nardole was becoming increasingly likely to just kill the former evil mastermind himself.

Eventually he snapped, as Missy reached out to bop him on the nose for the third time, catching her wrist as he glared at her angrily, "Doctor, would you please get your pet psychopath under control!" He shouted, finally getting the attention of the Doctor, who looked up, catching sight of Missy pouting at Nardole's grip on her arm.

"What are you doing?" He asked Nardole in puzzlement, as though it was him who was causing the trouble.

Ignoring Missy, who was snickering away to herself happily, Nardole rolled his eyes, "Sir, I have tried to be patient, but if you don't do something then I am going to be forced to."

"Really?" Missy drawled, eyes shining excitedly as she leaned closer, unconcerned with the grip he still had on her wrist which was tightening unconsciously as his anger at her increased, "And what are you going to do humpty, are you fast enough to do anything at all before I can retaliate?"

"Missy." The Doctor said, without feeling or inflection, his voice ringing out strong and sure through the room.

Blinking at Nardole as her eyes sobered, Missy stepped back, forcing him to release his grip harmlessly by twisting her wrist. "I apologize." She told him quietly, almost sounding sincere, walking over to the Doctor and breaking off her game of winding him up.

The Doctor just raised his eyebrows smugly at Nardole, with a little smirk, before pointing at the screen and looking at Missy, "What do you make of that?"

Staring for a few moments, Missy nodded, "It makes sense, the Quantum Shade makes Me almost impossible to face head on, provoking an attack by someone who would blame her automatically, in this case U.N.I.T., would certainly be the best way to remove her from power."

"But who is orchestrating this, it has to be multiple lifeforms, but how would they be so organized right under the Mayor's nose. As much as I am still angry with her, I won't deny that Ashildr is not a stupid woman, she is intelligent enough to see threats coming long before they become a problem."

Missy shook her head slowly, "Then we're looking for something that you can't see coming, something that can hide in plain sight, maybe something that can even control the actions of others without them even realising it. That would stop Mayor Me being able to see what's coming with any clarity."

The Doctor went still as a possibility dawned on him, his mind racing through as he tried to work out just how plausible it could be.

"What is it?" Nardole asked, noticing how stiff he was suddenly standing, his fingers clenched around the edge of the screen.

"What if it's something that doesn't need to hide?" The Doctor asked quietly, "Because as soon as it turns a corner you forget it was ever there at all?"

Missy was confused for a moment before her eyes widened, remembering one of the stories he had told her during the long years she had been locked away, "But you said you had dealt with them on Earth?"

"Because every generation of humanity would have cause to watch the same moment of their history, why would a Cyberman or a Sontaran possibly care about Earth's first cautious ventures into space?"


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, you guys are amazing and it is so helpful to know that people are enjoying what I'm writing and don't just think I'm wasting my time writing something that isnt even very good haha. Its very reassuring to know you guys are there and I must be doing something right. I have the next two chapters written because I wrote them before I wrote this one but they need adjusting slightly to match up with the end of this one and since this is double the size of my longest one so far, Im going to wait until tomorrow to post them. Please keep reviewing, because it is massively helpful to me, thanks!**

"But it doesn't make sense." Nardole protested, "You said they fought with you at Trenzalore?"

"I did, and they did." The Doctor told him, "But it was a mutually beneficial relationship, and at this point in time, any Silents on Earth are in hiding, their group fractured and scattered across the globe."

Missy nodded thoughtfully, still staring at the screen, "So what do we do now Doctor, how do we track something we can't remember? And what do we do when we find it, do we kill it?"

Sitting down, the Doctor ran his hand over his face, "I don't know, so far we don't even know if we're right. But the Silents are dangerous, their ability to implant hypnotic suggestions makes this particularly tricky."

"What did you do last time?" Nardole asked him.

Smiling, the Doctor chuckled, "We implanted a video of one of them ordering the human race to attack them amongst the footage of the moon landing. It placed the suggestion in every human mind on the planet, which is what caused their hold on humanity to fracture."

Holding his hand up to tell them to wait a minute, he disappeared out of the room, leaving Nardole and Missy alone.

"Have you ever had any encounters with these creatures?" Nardole asked the Time Lady curiously, who tilted her head to the side as she thought.

"I don't think so, but how could I know for sure?" She asked him, looking back at the screen, feeling like she was missing something.

The Doctor suddenly reappeared before she could think much more about it, brandishing something that looked similar to a gun, "Give me your hand." He told Nardole, who eyed the gun nervously before allowing the Doctor to wrap his long fingers around his wrist.

Then there was a sharp pain in his hand and the Doctor stepped away, ignoring his cry of pain, repeating the process with his own hand quickly.

He didn't have to ask Missy, who just offered out her palm to him as he approached, not even flinching as the device was injected into her skin.

"What did you do?" Nardole asked, shaking his hand irritably as the Doctor tossed the gun aside carelessly.

"Nano recorders." He answered proudly, "It's what we used last time to tell if we had seen one of them or not. You activate it when you see one of the Silents and leave a spoken message, it then flashes to tell you that you have a saved recording."

"Very good dear." Missy told him sarcastically, "And as for stopping it or them? I assume you have no plan."

"Do you?" He asked her, slightly deflated by the lack of excitement at the nano recorders.

Missy smiled, "Give me a gun and an hour and we can have this entire mess sorted out."

"No." He shook his head quickly, "I don't want you killing unless there's no other choice, we don't want you slipping back into bad habits."

"But you don't seem to be that concerned about killing the Silents." She noted with interest. "Tell me Doctor, how many of them died the last time you faced them."

Scowling, he looked at Nardole, hoping he would change the subject but he just looked as interested as Missy at the answer. "There was no choice, they attacked us, and River defended us."

"Of course." Missy smiled, "Your psychopath wife, custom made just for you, tell me Doctor, is surrounding yourself with psychopaths a conscious choice or do you just have a type?"

"Hilarious Missy." He brushed her off, heading for the door, not bothering to check that the two of them were following.

Stubbornly refusing to answer any of the teasing questions Missy kept throwing at him, he walked in silence back to the Trap Street, the other two trailing behind him.

This time they weren't stopped at the entrance, Me having set it so they could come and go as they pleased whilst they were investigating the murders.

"Nardole and I will look around, Missy you go and talk to Ashildr." He ordered, passing her the nano injector. "Give her one of the recorders and fill her in, and then protect her, if we're right and they see us closing in on them, then they might chance it and just go straight for her. Do not let her leave your sight!"

Putting her arm up, Missy gave him a serious look, "What if she needs to go to the little girls room?"

"Missy."

"What if I need to go to the little girls room?"

"Missy!"

Frowning, she shook her head at him, "Fine, no one gets to go to the little girls room, now I understand why your friends need to keep their own places away from the Tardis, your rules are mean."

Scowling at her as she grinned before disappearing, he grumbled under his breath whilst Nardole patted his arm sympathetically.

"It's ok Sir, you always have the vault ready and waiting."

Missy was careful to look unhurried as she headed to the Mayor's house, but she moved quickly, keeping her eyes peeled and checking the device in her palm every couple of steps.

When she reached the door there was a guard outside, who eyes her suspiciously for a moment before standing aside and waving her through.

"Me." She called, guided back to the same living room by Me's answering call.

The immortal looked up from the book she was reading as Missy walked into the room, smiling in greeting, "I assume you and the Doctor talked out whatever caused that argument?" Me asked, waving for Missy to take a seat, which she did.

Nodding, Missy pulled out the injector the Doctor had given her and quickly ran Me through their theory that one of the Silents wanted her out of power and were orchestrating the murders so she would be blamed. Then she explained what the nano recorders were and how they worked before quickly placing one into the flesh of Me's palm, who winced slightly but otherwise didn't react.

Me frowned when Missy got to the part about the Doctor ordering her to protect the Mayor, "I'm not a child, I don't need protecting."

"And I'm a Time Lady." Missy told her, "But I wouldn't want to be alone with one of these things after me." She told her, "You could have walked past one every day this week and not know it, there could even be one living in your house with you and you wouldn't be able to remember."

Me shuddered and Missy instantly regretted saying that, "There probably isn't though, repeated memory wipes start to scramble your mind after a while. If you were living with one we would be able to tell."

"Well that's something at least." Me breathed, attempting to smile but it came out as more of a grimace as the nervousness she felt made her feel sick to the stomach.

Missy smiled back at her, her expression coming across as less forced and a lot easier that Me's. "I wouldn't worry too much, and if all else fails, we can use that guard of yours outside as a meat shield."

Me stared at her in confusion, "I don't have a guard outside."

And then Missy leaned closer, wrapping her fingers around the immortal's throat.

* * *

"Doctor." Nardole gasped, catching hold of his hand and raising it up, so the Doctor could see the pulsing light under his palm. "It's glowing."

Staring at it with interest, the Doctor pressed down, activating the message for them both to hear.

"Doctor is that?"

"Yes, that's a Silent."

"Why would it be in the Mayor's house, I thought Missy was keeping her safe. If one had shown up wouldn't she have killed it?"

"Maybe she forced it to leave, wait no!"

"Doctor stop! Don't go after it, it will kill you like it killed that guard, we need to make sure that Missy and Me are still alive."

"It's about to-"

"Doctor. It's glowing."

And then the recording ended, leaving them standing in the middle of the street, looking at the front door of Mayor Me's house.

"Come on!" The Doctor shouted, already halfway to the door, sonic out and pointed to the door, which swung open, allowing him to dart inside.

Nardole rushed after him and the two of them ran into the building, instantly hearing a crashing sound which led them into the living room they had started their investigation into.

Freezing, they stared at the sight in front of them.

Me was lying on the floor, with Missy knelt on top of her, one hand wrapped around the girls throat whilst her other hand clasped a piece of glass from the broken vase on the floor, which was dripping drops of Missy's blood down onto Me's face.

Missy's arm was shaking and she was breathing heavily, as Me spoke quickly and calmly, her voice raspy and stunted by the bruising grip around her neck.

As the Doctor took a step forward, Me waved him back clumsily as Missy's grip tightened, "Missy, put it down, it's ok you can put it down." She choked out.

Fingers opening the shard of glass clattered to the ground and then Missy was on the other side of the room, curled in a ball against the wall, her hands covering her face as she rocked backwards and forwards.

As the Doctor stepped into the room properly, he heard the words she was muttering over and over, "I'm so sorry."

"Nardole." He started, but the other man was already halfway to the distraught Gallifreyan on the floor, surprisingly gentle as he knelt down and started looking at her hand.

"What happened?" The Doctor asked Me, who took his offered hand and pulled herself up painfully.

"We were talking and then suddenly she just attacked me. But her eyes were just blank, and then as the vase shattered when we knocked it over, it was though she had woken up but couldn't quite stop herself." Me explained, coughing harshly as the Doctor helped her to the couch.

"Doctor!" Nardole called to him.

Looking down at Me, who waved him towards Missy, he stepped over the broken glass to join Nardole at the side of his friend.

Holding up the hand that hadn't been holding the glass, Nardole showed him the pulsing light on Missy's palm.

"Ok." The Doctor told her softly, wrapping his arm around her waist and half walking, half carrying her to the couch, where he sat her down opposite Me. "I know this wasn't you, and that light is going to prove it."

As she leaned into him, he felt the jagged edges of her mind catching against his and almost jerked away before he caught himself just in time. Whatever had gotten into her head, she had fought it kicking and screaming, which had reopened old scars.

Shuddering slightly, she pressed her finger to her palm and they all listened to what had happened to cause her to attack the person she was supposed to be protecting.

"I don't have a guard outside."

"Stay behind me." Missy's voice was sharp and focused and it was clear from her voice alone that she had just seen the Silent they were hunting step into the room.

"What is that?"

"Slightly slow on the uptake, aren't you?" Her voice was mocking, but in a distracted way.

"Time Lord." That voice was unmistakably unhuman.

"If you want to continue your pathetic little existence since humans kicked you to the curb I would suggest leaving now." Missy's voice practically growled out.

"Kill the immortal."

"And why would I do that?"

"Kill the immortal."

"Still not feeling like it."

"Kill the immortal."

"How about I just kill you? Now wouldn't that be fun."

"Missy, you said that they could give hypnotic suggestions." They heard the worried voice of Me.

"I used to hypnotise people all the time as pranks, their powers still come under the realms of telepathy and I refuse to believe that they are stronger than mine." They heard Missy scoff, her voice confident with a touch of arrogance. It was only the Doctor who noticed the smallest thread of doubt that was buried in there.

"Kill the immortal. Or we will kill you."

"Answers still no. I'm trying my best because the Doctor said he doesn't want me killing anyone today, but one more time and I might just forget he ever said that."

"Kill her."

They heard Missy snarl angrily and then the recording cut out.

Rubbing Missy's shoulder comfortingly, he was surprised when she shook him off, standing up and walking to the window, which she stared out of, arms crossed across her chest.

Gesturing to the other two, he waited until they had left the room before following her to the window, standing next to her, but respecting her apparent desire to not be touched. Which he understood, the Silent's attack on her mind having heightened her telepathic senses, and considering how he often hated it when others touched him because of his people's strength in touch telepathy, he wasn't willing to ignore her need for the relative quiet of her own mind.

"I could have killed her." She muttered eventually, "I was going to kill her."

"You didn't." He responded quietly. "In fact, I don't think I have ever been prouder to call you my friend. My best friend."

Eyeing him, it was almost heart breaking how hopeful the look on her face was, "Really?"

"Not only did you deliberately not kill the Silent because I asked you not to. But you protected Ashildr. Yes, it may have been from yourself, but attacking her wasn't your fault and the fact that you stopped yourself shows you are far stronger than I think anyone has ever given you credit for." He told her firmly.

"My head feels like the pieces of a puzzle that are all shaken up in its box." She muttered, a pained expression on her face as she pressed her hand to her forehead. "I hate when someone gets inside my head, I do enough damage to it myself."

"It's probably how they managed to plant the suggestion in a mind as powerful as yours." The Doctor said, "Too many people have been inside your head over the years messing with things, it's a wonder you even let me in there at all."

Smiling, Missy leaned into his side, breathing out slowly as she allowed him back into her head after having pulled away, "It's because I trust you." She whispered, the words spoken both telepathically and normally, echoing around them pleasantly, "I trust that you aren't going to start moving all the pieces to where I can't find them anymore."

"Never." He assured her, the word barely even a whisper over their connection, but it carried the weight of a promise he would never even consider breaking.

As they stood there, he felt the question she was about to ask before she even put words to it, and she felt his answer before he even knew he had it.

After what it had done, when it resurfaced Missy wanted to kill the Silent, and the Doctor was inclined to let her.

Barely a moment after that weighted exchange, which had happened in less than a nano second, they heard Nardole shouting for them.

Without hesitation, they darted for the front door, running out onto the street, in which over a dozen members of different species where stood. They were watching as Me stood behind Nardole, who was facing down a Silent twice his size.

"It's powering up to blast them." The Doctor warned quickly, pulling out his screwdriver but already knowing that it was River's gun that had been effective when they had faced them in 1969.

Missy was gone from his side when he glanced round to see if she was ok, but he didn't have time to dwell on it, hitting the recorder on his palm before getting in the way of the Silent and his friend who was still doing his best to protect the injured immortal behind him.

"Stop now and I'll let you live. All these people are going to watch you kill her, it's not the smooth secretive plan you had hoped for." He tried reasoning with it, but the build-up of power wasn't stopping.

"Once she is dead, they will all forget, and all they will see is her body, with a Time Lord stood over her." It told him, holding out its hand towards Me.

"You're going to have to kill me as well." The Doctor warned.

The Silent didn't even consider for more than second before it had taken a step forwards, "So be it."

Then six gunshots rang out through the street, in quick succession, and the Silent collapsed to the ground.

Missy tossed the gun back to the guard she had stolen it off, looking at the Doctor, "I'm going back to the Tardis."

And then she was gone, leaving him to clear up afterwards, rushing as he went through the motions, eager to get back and make sure that she was genuinely alright.


	13. Chapter 13

Walking back onto the Tardis, he didn't have to say anything before the old girl was pointing him in the direction of one of the side corridors.

Entering the corridor, he could see a pair of trouser clad legs dangling from the ceiling and crept over, before tugging on the lacing of Missy's boots playfully.

He regretted it almost instantly, when instead of laughing she instinctively kicked him in the face to shake loose the grip on her shoe.

As the Doctor clutched his jaw, Missy's head appeared as she leaned down, eyeing him with mild concern, "Anything broken?"

When he shook his head, she grinned at him and winked, her playful mood in stark contrast to the emotions he had felt coming off her as she left the street earlier, "Then it serves you right, you shouldn't sneak up on a girl like that."

"What are you doing now?" He asked her, as she held out her hand, presumably for the screwdriver, which he handed over. "And this is why I gave you your own sonic, you can't just keep stealing mine."

"It's not stealing if you're giving it to me and I have every intention of returning it." She called down, as the whirring of the sonic started echoing through the ventilation shaft that ran the length of the corridor. "And you gave me an umbrella you idiot, hardly the most practical design choice in the world."

"But the one that best fits with your aesthetic." He grumbled at her lack of appreciation, "And you didn't answer my question?"

Missy chuckled, dropping the screwdriver back down to him before pointing at a pair of wire strippers on the ground, which he passed up, "You are naughty Doctor, you put your Tardis through a hell of a lot that she simply wasn't built for. There's whole sections that need rewiring and parts that have burnt out completely. Every time I walk back though the front doors, the Tardis points me towards another section she wants fixing, because if she tells you it'll never get done."

Passing the wire strippers back down she snagged the sonic from his hand again and the whirring started back up.

"Hey! I love my Tardis, I'd do all this for her myself if she asked." He complained, speaking half to Missy and half to the Tardis herself, who seemed to be amused rather than understanding of his frustration.

"And she loves you." Missy answered, reaching down for his hands so he could help her jump down, which he did automatically, "But your attention span if shorter than that of a child's, you have been spoilt having a Tardis. You've never had to be patient about anything."

The Doctor scoffed, crossing his arms, "And you're more patient than I am?"

"Queen of Evil." She held out her arms proudly, before reaching up and pulling her hair out of the ponytail it was in, having gotten changed into similar clothes as last time to work on the Tardis once she had gotten back again, letting it fall down her back freely, "I have had to wait a long time for my plans to fall into place. Your birthday present had me waiting around for years, do you think it's easy building an army from scratch?"

"Oh please, try to take more pride in your diabolical schemes." He told her sarcastically, as they began walking back to the main console room.

Missy just rolled her eyes, the teasing smirk still playing across her lips, "Doctor I have already told you, your version of good is not absolute. Not doing bad things, just because I can, may be as good as I'll ever get, or maybe one day I'll be as morally uptight as you. But either way, I won't pretend as though the previous however many years of my life didn't happen at all. And that one was a good scheme, it all worked out perfectly."

"I beat you." The Doctor countered quickly.

Humming softly in the back of her throat, Missy eyed him mischievously, "Did you now?"

"I didn't accept your army, and P.E. burnt up the clouds, destroying your cyber army in the process."

"Your cyber army." Missy corrected him happily, "I told you I didn't need them, as mad as I am, I have never once been deluded enough to think I am right. That's your job. And did you or did you not find out just what kind of man you were? My idiot, with a box and a screwdriver." She smiled fondly.

Eyes narrowing, he opened his mouth to question her, but she had already skipped off as they entered the console room.

Ignoring his glaring from across the room, she regarded the screen thoughtfully, watching the readouts fluctuating before they finally settled within normal expected levels.

"Well there's another thing to check off your list." She told the Tardis warmly, ghosting her fingers over the control panel closest to her before looking back over to the Doctor, who was still looking less than impressed. "Well I'm going to bed I think, today's been quite exciting and I could do with a power nap before your infernal machine puts me back to work tomorrow."

The Doctor coughed lightly as she headed to the door, jerking his head back towards the steps that led down to the corridor the bedrooms usually appeared on, "I don't need to sleep tonight and I'm planning to just read, so you may as well stay in your room on the Tardis rather than going back down to the vault."

"My room?" She questioned teasingly, "Careful Doctor, I might start thinking you want me around."

"Well you keep raiding the wardrobe so you may as well have somewhere to keep all the things you keep stealing." He told her haughtily, waving her off, pointedly ignoring the laughter as she went.

After a moments deliberation, he made the snap decision to follow her.

He had come back intending to make sure she was ok after what had happened at Ashildr's house, but with the good mood Missy had been in it hadn't seemed like a good idea to bring it up.

Regardless of how much he didn't want to do it, he would be a poor friend if he didn't at least make the effort to check.

Hurrying after her, he spotted her just as she was about to disappear through a door into the endless maze of Tardis corridors, "Missy wait!" He called to her, jogging to catch up as she leaned against the wall, a resigned smile already directed at him.

"You want to talk about what happened today." She said, it was a statement not a question.

"I…" He started, before pointing at a door a few meters up from where they were standing, "Cup of tea?" He settled on asking helplessly.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Missy nodded, holding out her hand in invitation, following him into the small kitchen that never seemed to stay in the same place for long but always reappeared when it was needed.

She sat at the table patiently as he pottered around, making the drinks with no sense of urgency, both fully aware that he was putting off the conversation deliberately by taking his time. But there was only so much time possible to waste on making tea and before long the two of them were sat opposite each other, clasping their mugs in both hands.

"Do you remember what happened?" He asked eventually, careful to keep his voice light and even, not wanting her to feel as though she was being interrogated which was the last thing this was meant to be.

"Someone got inside my head and made me try to kill another one of your pets, and even though I can't remember the moment when they actually did it, I can feel the damage that refusing their command caused." Missy told him quietly, leaning her head in one hand whilst the other remained clasped firmly around the mug she still hadn't bothered to drink from.

The Doctor nodded sympathetically. "Anything else?"

"There's a blank space of time directly before I returned to the Tardis, I'm assuming I did something then that you want to talk about?" She asked him, massaging the side of her head with her finger tips.

"It's blank for me too." He told her, "But I activated my recorder, you shot and killed the Silent."

He almost didn't catch it, if he was human he would certainly have missed it, but there was a sudden flash of terror across Missy's face as she stared into his eyes searchingly. The fear that he would reject her for doing something that didn't fit with his code.

"Relax." He told her calmly, "It was about to kill myself, Nardole and Mayor Me. It's hard to tell from just a recording, but I'm pretty sure you saved our lives by doing what you did. What I'm worried about is whether you're ok, having something get inside your head is not something either of us take lightly and I'm concerned for my friend."

Sighing, she reached out for his hand, something he had noticed her doing more and more lately, comforted by the simple pleasure of being physically connected to another.

"I think I'm ok." Missy told him slowly, considering for herself just how true the words were as she said them, "I said that my mind felt like a box of puzzle pieces, all shaken up, some things have been shaken loose that I really haven't thought about in a long time. Things that I buried because they hurt."

He opened his mouth to ask what, but the look on her face convinced him very quickly to close it again.

"I need some time to go from disorganized chaos in here," She smiled, tapping her head, "To just organized chaos again. And that may take a little time, but I promise I'm not going to run off and start conquering planets tonight, nor am I going to do anything self-destructive. I'm going to sleep and then tomorrow I will continue helping the Tardis with whatever she needs me to do."

"Why have you been doing so much Tardis repair?" The Doctor asked her again, not satisfied with the explanation that she had previously given. He had done enough repairs himself through the years for the Tardis to know that when she truly needed him he was there for her with whatever she needed him to do, no matter how long the tasks took or how minor they might be, all she had to do was ask.

Sighing, Missy shook her head, "Too nosy for your own good." She teased, "The Tardis knows how much it helps me focus. My head, it gets too loud sometimes, or worse, too quiet. The drums were a part of me for so long that I don't know remember what it was like to be sane anymore, so I spiral out again. Physically working on something grounds me in a way that nothing else quite manages, and I'm good at it as well, two birds with one stone as the saying goes."

Setting her mug aside and standing up, Missy leaned down to kiss his cheek before she headed to bed, "Goodnight Doctor."

Leaving him along in the kitchen, thinking about just how much effort it must take for her to act every day like everything was fine and relatively normal, despite how disjointed the separate strands of her mind must feel for her.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Hey guys, thank you again to everyone who is reviewing, it makes a difference on where I go next in the story and makes my life a hell of a lot easier when it looks like I'm going to run into writers block.**

 **That being said, writers block hasn't gotten me yet haha and this is the second chapter today, so please make sure that you don't accidentally miss last chapter because these last couple all run into each other and only really make sense in the right order.**

It was nearly four in the afternoon the next day and Missy still hadn't re-emerged so eventually he decided to go hunting for her, heading off into the Tardis, unsure where it had stashed her room.

With the Tardis helpfully pointing him in the right direction, he finally managed to find his way to it, hidden deep with the walks and more obscure room of the infinite time machine.

Knocking on the door, he waited patiently for her to call him in, frowning when he heard nothing. He tried again, but when there was still no answer he just cracked open the door and stuck his head through.

The room was nice, as nice as his own, which just showed just how much of a soft spot the Tardis had developed for the other Gallifreyan, especially considering their history.

Although the Mistress did seem to be very different to her previous incarnation, even from the first time he had encountered her. She was still evil and insane, but not in the same way she had been. There was a layer of genuineness to her, something deeper that shone through like it hadn't been able to before.

Momentarily distracted by his musings on the Tardis' relationship to the woman he was looking for, it took him a minute to register that she wasn't in fact in the room.

Frowning, he threw up his hands in annoyance, "You were supposed to be helping me find her, are you really expecting me to believe that you didn't know that she wasn't in here? Where is she really?"

The Tardis was stubbornly silent for a moment, before a side door he hadn't noticed yet clicked.

Walking through it, the Doctor tried to work out where the small passage was leading him, but ended up just following it, giving up on trying to map out a constantly shifting, living thing in his mind.

Emerging into what looked like a long-forgotten section of the library, he followed the string of lighted overhead to an open section with a large table, a desk lamp lighting the book that Missy was leaning over.

As he got closer, he noticed that there were tears in her eyes which she was hurriedly trying to cover up, and the book in front of her was a history of the Time War, the one he had written himself.

Feeling both of his hearts ache in sympathy for her, the Doctor took a seat opposite and placed his hand over hers, waiting quietly for her to acknowledge his presence.

"I didn't realize anyone had ever written a full account of the Time War." Missy mutter eventually, "Although it makes sense that if anyone had it would have been you."

"What did you just-?" He started, but she cut him off, anticipating the end of the question.

"The Fall of Arcadia."

Sighing heavily, he rubbed his fingers against the back of her hand, "I'm sorry."

Touching the brooch that she had pinned onto the shirt she was wearing, she nodded slowly, "It wasn't your fault."

"I was there, I could have…" He tried again, trailing off when he realised that there was nothing he had to say.

Giving him a small smile for making the effort to try at all, Missy tapped the book, "From the way you describe what happened she was a hero, all the way to the end."

"I didn't write a word that wasn't true." The Doctor told her firmly, "She was everything that's in those pages and so much more."

"So, the opposite of her mother then." Missy told him bitterly, "I just ran."

"You were scared." He comforted her softly.

Shaking her head, Missy clenched her fist, nails digging into her palm painfully. "We were all scared, I was a coward."

"You were terrified, with the drums in your head having driven you insane, and you had just learned that the one person you truly loved more than anything else in the universe had been killed in the war you were forced into fighting. Even if you had stayed after the Cruciform fell, all that would have happened is that you would have burned right along with the rest of Gallifrey." The Doctor told her, keeping his voice gentle and even as he carefully eased open her hand, revealing the four half circles that had been cut into it.

"Gallifrey was never destroyed." She countered half-heartedly.

"Not anymore." He agreed, "But I wouldn't want there to ever be a time, whether it actually happened or not, where you died because of me."

Chuckling humourlessly, she let him entwine his fingers with hers, "The boat has sailed on that one Thete."

"Well we're both still here so far, and I'm never going to hurt you again." The Doctor told her, hoping and wishing with both his hearts that what he was saying was true, and there would never be a time where he would be forced to go back on his promise. "This is what you were talking about yesterday isn't it, memories being shaken loose."

Breathing out deliberately slowly, Missy closed the book and set it aside, "I don't like to think about the Time War, I keep it hidden away, so I can pretend that what happened was just a terrible dream."

He stayed quiet, she was broadcasting a clear stay away feeling and if they were ever going to talk about the last days of the Time War, now wasn't a good time to do it. Not when she was feeling off kilter and unsure from someone poking about in parts of her head they had no business being.

Looking back up at him eventually, she quirked her head to the side, "How did you get here, the door to the library is that way?" She asked, pointing in the opposite direction to the way he had come in.

The Doctor shrugged lightly, "I went through your room."

Scowling half-heartedly, Missy pouted childishly, "You couldn't have kept that door a secret for even a day?" She asked the Tardis who just hummed around them. "Anyway, I assume you were looking for me for a reason?" She asked the Doctor, who was watching her with an amused look on his face.

"I was, U.N.I.T. will need to know what happened on Trap Street so they don't try to shoot Ashildr on sight." He told her.

Frowning, Missy sank back into her chair, "Another visit to them already? Maybe I should just stay here with the Tardis."

"You may not like it, but it's important that they see you helping." The Doctor reminded her patiently, "Remember we're trying to make sure they don't try to shoot you on sight as well."

Grumbling under her breath, Missy nodded reluctantly, "Fine, let's go play with the toy soldiers then."

"Koschei." He said warningly, but there was a smile on his face.

"You're no fun at all." 


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: So I'm screwing myself over by posting this one now a little bit. It's twenty past one in the morning but since I havent gone to sleep just yet I'm counting this as the third chapter of the day. If I was more intelligent I would hold off on posting this so I can be lazy tomorrow but I just love writing this so much that the chapters keep coming automatically and I have no doubt I'll be able to come up with more for tomorrow. In fact I'm half tempted to write another before I go to bed because I just want to keep playing in this world.**

 **Anyway, thank you as always to everyone reading and reviewing and remember to make sure that you dont miss the previous two chapters, I know I always get confused when I fic I read has done multiple posts in a day cause my emails send me to the most recent.**

 **Until tomorrow!**

Materialising in a store cupboard and not the central area of U.N.I.T. HQ had seemed like the safer choice, giving U.N.I.T. a moment to compose and prepare themselves for the moment the two Gallifreyans walked through the door.

And the Doctor was feeling particularly proud of himself because he had landed precisely when he wanted too, arriving two minutes after they had left that morning.

It would have probably been a good plan all around, if Missy hadn't escaped from him before he could stop her, leaping out into the central control hub and screeching boo at the top of her lungs.

To their credit, no one actually shot her, but it was a close call and Kate looked as though she was ready to strangle the Time Lady, who was cackling away to herself quite happily, having reclaimed the chair she had vacated just before they had left.

"Doctor!" Kate called to him, "We didn't expect you back so soon."

Spinning in the swivel chair, Missy amused herself by pulling faces at the scientists closest to her, who were trying their best to seem deeply focused on the screens in front of them.

"Problems all sorted." The Doctor smiled, frowning when he saw Missy shaking her head at him mockingly and pointing at an invisible watch on her wrist. "Well it will be sorted in about eleven hours."

"What happened?" Kate pressed when he didn't automatically continue, instead crossing the room to try to snatch the sonic screwdriver from Missy, who was waving it around like a trophy.

Scowling at his misbehaving best friend, he reached out for her through their link.

 _Would you please behave yourself?_

She didn't answer in words, instead letting him see just how jumpy she was feeling surrounded by people who hated her when everything still felt so muddled.

Wincing in sympathy, he shook his head.

 _Could you at least dial it back a little?_

Missy just laughed, tossing the screwdriver back to him and nodding over his shoulder at Kate, "Are you not going to answer the woman?"

The Doctor stared blankly for a moment before the question Kate had asked registered and he span back to meet her increasingly frustrated gaze. "Yes of course, we went to investigate and found out that it was a creature called a Silent. All the murders were an attempt to frame Mayor Me and remove her from power."

"We've never heard of them, do you have a picture?" Kate asked him with interest.

"It's no use." Missy answered for him, "They erase themselves from your memory the second you can't see them, it's really quite infuriating."

"And they have the power to plant hypnotic commands, that you then carry out without even knowing why you're doing it." The Doctor continued, deliberately not looking at Missy in an attempt to keep their attention off her.

But with how nervous everyone was at having her in the room, there was no one who missed how pale she suddenly seemed as she stilled her spinning in the chair.

"How did you stop it?" Kate asked him, following his lead, and ignoring the look on Missy's face, continuing the conversation as though the Time Lady in question hadn't just become uncharacteristically quiet.

The Doctor nodded his thanks at her, "Well, we can't remember exactly what happened because of its abilities, but we used nano recorders so we were able to play back to event of its death. The Silent threatened the life of Mayor Me and myself, and to stop it Missy shot it six times, presumably in the back or it would have seen her."

"And that's all that happened? In the eleven hours, you've lived since leaving here?"

"Well we've been gone a little longer than that." He smiled, "But it will be dead in eleven hours. And Mayor Me will be waiting at the entrance to Trap Street to deliver the body to you."

Kate frowned, "Doctor, you didn't answer the question."

"I can't, it's a creature engineered to wipe out your memories of what happens whilst it's in the room, there's nothing else I can tell you." He told her warningly, and there was a clear undertone telling her to back off, which she did reluctantly.

She didn't understand completely why he was holding back, but Kate was guessing that it had something to do with Missy, who had seemingly recovered and was fishing about in the pockets of her coat, tossing random scraps of electronic components onto the desk closest to her idly.

And it did feel as though there was something off in how hyperactive she seemed to be, not the deceptively charismatic but intently focused predator they had become accustomed to dealing with since the events at St Pauls.

They watched as the Doctor patiently turned back to the other last member of his species, scooping up the pieces she had been discarding and holding them out to her, "You can't leave these here and you know it, they're far too advanced for this time period."

Sighing, he offered the sonic back to her, tapping the side of it as she took hold, "I think there's something wrong with the power cell, would you look at it? Seeing as you're so bored."

The Doctor knew he'd done the right thing when Missy visibly relaxed, having something to do with her hands to keep her occupied. Before he even turned away she had already stripped off the side of the casing and was staring intently into the inner workings of the device.

As Kate opened her mouth to question him, he shook his head quickly, nodding to her office door behind her.

"Doctor, if the threat is really dealt with then I have some files that you could look through if you're not too busy, it would be tremendously helpful." She told him quickly, leading him through and shutting the door behind them, "Ok what is going on?" Kate hissed at him, as he peeked through the window to check that Missy was still working on the sonic.

"It got inside her head and ordered her to kill Ashildr, refusing that command hurt her." The Doctor informed her, "For someone as gifted as Missy, both telepathically and intelligence wise as well, that loss of control alone is enough to feed back into the insanity she already struggles with. But to deliberately break free of psychic orders causes tangible damage."

Kate nodded slowly, attempting to understand why he was explaining to her, "So the hyperactivity?"

"A coping mechanism." He supplied, "Being here is making her uncomfortable so she looks for distractions, teasing your staff, searching through her pockets for something she can focus on."

"Is there anything wrong with your sonic screwdriver Doctor?" Kate asked him, catching on quickly.

The Doctor chuckled, looking back out the small window at Missy, "Technically there is a small fault, barely a problem at all, but I doubt she'll even bother to fix that, more likely she'll just strip it down and then rebuild it again. It's probably best we leave soon after she finishes putting it back together, and I doubt it's going to take much longer."

"Is the threat from this Silent definitely over Doctor?" Kate asked him.

"From that one yes." He assured her, "And that should be the end of the problems, and then it's over to you lot to do what you do best, monitor the situation and make sure everything is fine. You have my number if you need me."

"Then until the next time Doctor." Kate smiled warmly.

"Until the next time Kate Lethbridge-Stewart."


	16. Chapter 16

It was quickly becoming a recurring theme that as soon as they stepped foot back into the Tardis, Missy would disappear, popping up sometime later in 21st century casual clothing, half covered in dust and grease from working on the tasks the Tardis kept providing her with.

After they had left U.N.I.T. the Doctor piloted the Tardis to the street to pick up Nardole before landing finally back in his office.

"Where's Missy?" Nardole questioned, having not seen her since she had disappeared back to the Tardis after shooting the Silent.

There was a clanging sound just off to the side and then her head popped up from beneath the central platform the main console rested on top of.

Smiling at the Doctor, she held out her hand, frowning when it was an unfamiliar shaped screwdriver landing in her palm instead of his own blue one.

Not that she didn't like the one she had been handing, the casing was sleek and elegant, black with small golden trim around the edges. A series of buttons leading up one side and a slider set into the opposite.

"It's ridiculous to be passing one sonic screwdriver back and forth, you need your own." He told her. "And since you don't appreciate the umbrella I made for you…"

Pretending to tear up, she held it over her heart proudly, "I will treasure it." Missy promised him, before disappearing again as Nardole stared between them.

"She's in a good mood, all things considered." He commented as the Doctor turned back to the console, idly flicking through the screens read outs.

"Yes well, we've been gone a little bit longer than I said we would be." The Doctor admitted quietly.

Nardole shook his head disapprovingly, "Doctor!"

"Relax, it was just one night, I think she just needed to get away and breathe for a moment." He explained quietly, conscious that Missy was just underneath their feet.

Sniffing judgementally, Nardole didn't push the issue, wandering over to a chair and sitting down quietly.

It didn't take long before Missy reappeared, wiping her hands on her trousers as she walked up the steps, nudging the Doctor out the way so she could see the display the Tardis put up for her on the screen.

"Another one finished." She nodded in satisfaction. "Are you sleeping tonight?" She asked the Doctor conversationally.

After thinking for a moment, he shook his head, "No, I probably won't need to until the day after tomorrow?"

"Fabulous!" Missy exclaimed happily, "Cup of tea Doctor? Humpty Dumpty?" She threw the question over her shoulder as she headed off down the corridor.

The Doctor and Nardole followed along, with Nardole just rolling his eyes in annoyance at the nickname that seemed to have stuck.

As they walked through the doors into the kitchen, the Doctor caught her by the shoulders before she could step towards the sink, directing her to sit down and let him do it.

Whilst he trusted that she wouldn't poison him with anything lethal, Nardole would be hesitant to drink anything made by Missy and he wasn't in the mood to deal with her sulking after he insulted her by taking perfectly reasonable precautions given how likely it was that she might actually decide to slip something in his drink as a joke.

She frowned at him and he knew that Missy realised exactly why he wasn't letting her make the tea, but she didn't argue so he decided to count his blessings and just not mention it, working quickly to minimise the amount of time that Missy and Nardole had to sit alone together at the table.

By the time he had placed down the mugs, the two of them had evidently decided to just ignore each other.

"Not your usual colour scheme?" He commented, nodding at the Tardis blue shirt she was wearing as he sat down.

Looking down at it, she hummed irritably, "Yes, she seems to find it funny to replace all the clothes in my closet with replacements all the wrong colours. This was the least hideous, and I'm hoping wearing it will appease her enough that she'll return my actual clothes."

Chuckling, the Doctor looked over at Nardole, who was frowning down at his tea, deciding it was high time he tried to break the ice a little bit between the two of them now Missy was spending more and more time with them, "Have I ever told you anything about my time at the Academy on Gallifrey, Nardole?" He asked.

The other man shook his head, focusing on the Doctor with an interested look on his face, the Time Lord having never freely volunteered information about his time on his home planet before.

"I was in a band." The Doctor told him happily, seemingly at random, "I played lead perigosto stick."

Nardole watched with interest as Missy sat bolt upright and her expression turned dark, glaring at the Doctor warningly.

"We called ourselves, Gallifrey Academy Hot Five." The Doctor laughed, still focused on Nardole.

"Don't you dare." She hissed under her breath.

"The Master played the drums." He finished gleefully, eyeing her out of the corner of his eye, not caring when Missy hit him in the arm, hard.

Nardole stared at the Time Lady for a moment, before a laugh escaped, his amusement overriding his fear that she might dive across the table and try and beat him to death with her mug.

"Remind me again, who's idea was the name Koschei?" The Doctor asked her.

Missy just slid down in her chair, burying her face in her hands, "I hate you, I don't want to be friends any more. You can't just tell comic relief my secrets like that, it's rude."

Chuckling, the Doctor patted her shoulder comfortingly, "How about how we used to sneak out of the Citadel?"

A small smile played across Missy's lips as she looked up at Nardole, "Before the Doctor became such an infuriating stickler for the rules, he used to be a very bad influence on me, convincing me to sneak out at night and go drinking with the Shobogans."

Nardole's eyes widened as he glanced at the Doctor for confirmation who was shaking his head in denial.

"That's not true!" He cried out, "You were the one who suggested the drinking, that was all on you. You just told your father it was my fault to try and avoid getting into trouble for that fight you picked with six of them."

"You got into a drunken fight with six people?" Nardole questioned, "How did that go?"

Missy scowled and bit her lip as the Doctor threw back his head and laughed. "I had to carry her home because she was only half conscious and kept trying to go back and restart it."

"I would have won if you'd have kept your nose out." She told him bitterly.

The Doctor's eyes gleamed, "Not likely, the one time I let go for more than a few seconds you ended up in a crumbled heap on the floor."

"My dad couldn't wait for us to go back to the Academy after that visit home." She shook her head, before becoming quiet, "Do you miss it?" Missy asked after a moment's consideration.

"Hauling you back across the red grass pastures in the dark?" He asked her.

Resisting the urge to stick her tongue out childishly, she rolled her eyes at him, "No, the Academy."

Breathing in thoughtfully, he tilted his head to the side as he considered.

"Sometimes." He said eventually, "When I think back to those days, what I miss most is our friends."

"How many of you were there?" Nardole asked curiously, relishing in the opportunity he was getting to learn more about the Doctor.

It was Missy who answered, "The Academy was massive. But there were ten of us who were inseparable, we were the best, top of our classes."

"We were known as the Deca." The Doctor supplied, a fond smile on his lips as he looked at her.

"There was me, Theta Sigma." Missy said, nodding to the Doctor, "Ushas, Mortimus, Drax, Jelpax, Magnus, Millennia, Rallon and Vansell." She listed.

The Doctor nodded along, "Of the ten of us, it was only Jelpax and Vansell who remained in good standing with Time Lord Society in the end."

"What happened to the other eight of you?" Nardole questioned softly, not wanting to break them out of the nostalgic moods they had found themselves caught in.

Missy looked at the Doctor intently as she thought about it, "You, me, Ushas, Mortimus, and Drax became renegades when we left Gallifrey."

"Millennia and Rallon came with me to the realm of the Celestial Toymaker." He muttered, giving her a pained look which caused her to wince sympathetically.

"I was on a research project when that happened. I didn't hear about it until much later when they were gone and you'd been expelled." Missy told him, before looking back at Nardole who was watching them with a confused expression on his face, giving a quick shake of her head, an unmistakable order not to push.

 _If you must know then I will tell you later, but not now humpty._ Nardole felt as she brushed lightly against the fringes of his mind, the words barely a whisper as she refocused on the Doctor as though she hadn't reached out to Nardole at all.

Running his hand over his face, the Doctor took a breath before looking up with a grin, "I don't think any of our tutors could have foreseen the trouble the ten of us would cause, otherwise they would have kept us far apart. You and Ushas were particularly good at hiding your psychopathic tendencies."

Laughing Missy shook her head, "We just used how stomach turningly moral you were as a smoke screen to hide behind."

"Ushas was the most intelligent of all of us, the word genius could have been made for her." The Doctor reminisced wistfully, "She could have done so much good if she'd just learned to care about people over her science."

"She said my plans were overcomplicated." Missy sulked, "She had no taste, what's life without a little dramatic flair?"

Nodding along placatingly, the Doctor smiled, "We all fought so much as adults, but the fun we had as children…"

"That's the only thing I miss from Gallifrey." Missy admitted quietly, "When I think of home, the image I think of is us in the labs at the Academy, all of us, back before everything started getting so complicated."

As the mood shifted and became sombre, Nardole excused himself and slipped from the room, leaving the two Time Lords to their nostalgic reminiscing.


	17. Chapter 17

Nardole yawned as he stepped out of the Tardis and into the Doctor's office.

The Doctor himself was flicking irritably through end of term exams he had gotten his students to do, "Sometimes I almost feel bad for the pudding brains." He frowned, "No matter how much I try and teach them, they never seem to get any better."

"You should take Missy with you, try scaring them into focusing harder." Nardole supplied jokingly, before glancing around. "Where is the she-devil herself then? Doing more Tardis repairs?"

Sighing the Doctor shook his head, "It may have been a mistake to bring up Gallifrey last night, after you left her mood got progressively worse and she eventually lost control of her temper and started throwing anything breakable she could get her hands on." He explained quietly, already anticipating the judgemental look he was about to see on Nardole's face.

Nardole surprised them both by brushing past it calmly, "How is she today?"

Giving Nardole a small smile of thanks, the Doctor pointed downwards, "Once she'd destroyed everything that wasn't bolted down in the kitchen she stormed off to the vault and made some colourful threats about what would happen if I didn't leave her alone until morning."

"What happened to her on Gallifrey?" Nardole asked quietly, finding himself genuine in his desire to understand the Time Lady, after seeing flashes of the friend the Doctor was looking to reconnect with since their tangle with the Cybermen.

Leaning his elbows on the edge of his desk, the Doctor leaned forwards in his chair, "I don't know, at least not everything, probably not even half of it. The Master was brilliant, truly gifted and during the war our people needed gifted individuals to win the battles that they were otherwise losing. But they never trusted her, torturing her to get what they wanted, like her life meant nothing. And the drumming in her head that sent her insane, or at least was a huge contributing factor, that was placed there by the Time Lord's."

Before Nardole could speak, the Doctor checked his watch and stood up, waving at Nardole to follow him, "Come on, she should have calmed down by now." He said cheerfully.

"Should have? Because I don't want her throwing things at me." Nardole squeaked as the Doctor bounded down the stairs towards the vault, keying in his access code and slipping the key into the lock with a well-practised ease.

Cracking open the door, he peered in for a moment, opening it fully when no projectiles hit the other side allowing the two of them to step inside properly.

Stiffening Nardole didn't move a muscle as Missy's slender fingers curled around the collar of his shirt as she was suddenly behind him, her lips brushing his ear as she whispered. "Say something nice."

His stomach sank as he remembered the reports the Doctor had lifted from U.N.I.T., in particular the one about her using that phrase as a build up to murder.

Before he could decide what to do, she was cackling down his ear, prodding his side playfully as she skipped away to her piano, the keys dancing under her fingers as she launched into a piece of music that matched the manic feelings rolling off her.

As quickly as she had begun, Missy abandoned her playing and spun in her seat to watched the Doctor as he approached, her eyes sparkling. "I want to go to a party." She told him.

"Are you going to tidy up my kitchen first?" He asked her lightly, sitting in one of the armchairs closest to the raised platform the piano was on.

Missy closed her eyes for a moment, a pained look flitting across her features, before the mania was back and she was practically vibrating with energy as she prowled towards the Doctor.

"I want to go to a party." She repeated slowly, twirling just before she reached him and then sitting in his lap, propping her feet on the arm of the chair.

"We need to talk about last night." The Doctor told her gently, ignoring the way she was posturing.

Seeing the way her eyes darted towards Nardole before focusing back on him, the Doctor cleared his throat, "Nardole, would you check on my class schedule for this week."

"But it's half term."

"Just do it." The Doctor told him.

Catching on, Nardole huffed but did as he was told, stepping outside, and closing the door behind him.

As soon as he was out of the room, Missy stood up and headed back to her piano, this time playing a song that felt mournful and heavy hearted.

"What is that?" The Doctor questioned curiously, knowing it wasn't a classic Earth piece like she usually played.

Missy hummed along with the music for what felt like forever, until she eventually glanced back over her shoulder at him, "It's mine."

He kept quiet, listening as her hands glided over the piano, the beautiful but haunting melody echoing through the room.

As it wound down to its natural conclusion, she allowed her hands to drop into her lap, "I didn't mean to do what I did last night." Missy told him eventually, refusing to look at him.

"Did it help?" The Doctor asked after a moment.

Surprised by the question, Missy titled her head to the side as she considered it, before answering softly, "Yes, I think it did."

"Then it was only a kitchen." The Doctor told her, suddenly sitting on the piano stool next to her, although Missy hadn't heard him move, "You've destroyed far worse than that in your time and don't think I haven't realised that at no point did anything come flying at me."

"What I'm hearing is that you're ok with property damage." She joked shakily, barely realising that there were tears gathering in her eyes.

The Doctor chuckled as she leaned against him, reaching out for their bond, "What I'm saying is that given the choice between property damage and hurting people, you made the right choice. If you need to shout and scream and break things, then I am here for you. And as long as you don't hurt anyone, you don't ever have to worry about me judging you for what you need to do, to make things easier up here." He smiled, poking her forehead affectionately.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: I love this chapter, and that's because it was a complete and utter accident. When I sat down I was going to write a funny little filler chapter where they went to a party, had some fun and then Missy spiked the drinks. But instead this happened, and...welll, you'll have to let me know if you think it's any good or not, but I like it.**

They had sat in a comfortable silence for a long time, when Missy eventually shifted, reaching out to run her fingers along the piano keys again.

"You were right." She said softly.

"I usually am." The Doctor chuckled teasingly, "But what about?"

Smiling, she played a few bars of a gentle melody before pausing again, "I never learnt to hear the music."

"And now you're creating your own." He remarked, idly reaching out to the piano himself before pulling back. "Maybe we should start another band, I could play guitar, I can even break out my tank."

Laughing, she hummed quietly before starting playing again, her fingers dancing across the keys as the music began filling the room.

As the Doctor listened, he realised that the song felt incomplete, as though there was a whole section that had been carved out in the middle.

Ignoring him as she focused on the instrument in front of her, Missy deliberately loosened her control over her thoughts and feelings, before reaching for him psychically as one hand slipped from the piano to ghost over his before darting back.

Getting the hint that this time he wasn't an idle bystander, the Doctor leaned forwards properly, resting his hands on the lip of the piano, but holding back, unsure of what she wanted him to do.

Sighing, she changed tactic, doing the telepathic equivalent of throwing doors wide open, unmistakably inviting him in.

Once he caught on and allowed himself to completely drop his walls, he felt what she wanted him to do, and began expertly playing alongside her.

The gap that he had felt before gone as he slipped into the place she had deliberately set aside in the music for him.

It was something they had always been able to do on Gallifrey, merge their minds until they felt like parts of a whole rather than individual beings, coming together to complete each other.

But it had been frowned upon back then.

Time Lord's were meant to be higher beings, and the idea of being so intimately connected with someone was strongly discouraged, their studies had to come above everything else and to succeed they had to be able to stand alone.

It had been torturous for Koschei to try and avoid, who was a naturally gifted telepath and her abilities were so strong that she would reach out for Theta instinctively.

Neither of them had ever really understood why everyone seemed to be so angered by something they found as natural breathing.

Missy smiled as they played, and it wasn't long before he realised that he was smiling as well, the music coming naturally and telling a story, laying out the history of their friendship as it came full circle, from Gallifrey to Earth.

Each of them played their own side of the story, but even with those vastly differing perspectives, they were never truly out of sync, both strands of the piece tightly entwined even when their rivalry rose to the forefront and consumed the story for a while.

Time seemed to lose all meaning as the music reverberated not only through the room but through the link they shared as well. They relived every defining moment of their friendship and the thousands of others in between, uncaring when their fingers ached with fatigue, because what they were sharing was painfully honest and needed to be heard.

The Doctor felt when it was drawing to a close, saw the images flashing across their connection of the colony ship, of Missy's final confrontation with herself, with her choice to do what she had always known she wanted to do but had been too afraid to admit.

She let him see just how much it had cost her to do what she did, to give up that part of herself for real, knowing that it would hurt like hell. But that in doing so she was getting back the one person who had always been there, and who had never given up on her, even when she was the very worst of herself. All her selves.

And then it was his turn to put the last piece in place, as the tone of Missy's playing became light and peaceful with the conclusion of her internal battle.

His turn to pour out the last of his reservations, in a frenzied rush of confusion and pain before letting go.

Allowing her to see his choice to accept her as his friend play out, not despite her faults, but because of them. Because they made her the person he treasured, his best friend, the missing piece he needed, the piece that made him the Doctor.

As the final notes echoed through the room, they held their silence, neither one of them entirely sure of what to say after they had laid their souls bare for each other.

"I love you." The Doctor said eventually, almost laughing aloud at the instant look of disgust that leapt onto her face. "Not like that." He assured her quickly.

"Good." She told him, "I don't know how humans do it, so disgusting and ridiculously sentimental. Their reproductive frenzy is nothing to aspire to."

"Missy." He cut her off with a smile, before she could go off on a tirade about how disgusting humans were, which could last all day.

And he knew that from experience.

"I love you because you are a part of me, and I don't think I could live my life, without knowing that you are out there somewhere."

"Trying to get rid of me?" She joked, sobering again at the serious look on his face.

"I mean it." The Doctor told her intently, "I need you, it's always been you and me."

Missy stared at him for a moment, before softening, placing her hand over his, "I don't think there are enough words in any language to explain what we are to each other, I doubt that, even if there were, anyone could truly unravel the complicated mess that is our friendship to understand why one of us hadn't killed the other yet."

She paused, before taking a breath and nodding, "And you're right, it's always been us, whether that meant fighting or getting along. My whole life, the one constant has been you. And I don't know if I can ever show you how much I love you for that."

Leaning forwards, he rested his forehead against hers, the physical connection causing the intensity of their link to rise as they felt each other's emotions as keenly as they felt their own.

"All of time and space."

Not a question, a promise.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Hey guys, so sorry for missing yesterday's chapter, but I get really bad headaches and when they happen staring a screen puts me in a lot of pain so I just went to bed early last night to try and sleep through it. They happen fairly often and sometimes I can work through it but sometimes I just need to take a break from being on the computer. But thank you everyone for being patient with me and please enjoy todays chapter** **x**

Nardole stayed away for the rest of the day and the entire night, not sure whether they would still be there when he got back.

But he figured that bringing freshly baked goods had always put Missy in a slightly less murderous mood than usual in the mornings so he'd try that when he arrived the next day and otherwise just hope for the best.

Arriving in the basement, he hesitated as he saw the door standing ajar but continued anyway, deciding that it was better to check regardless because with the mood the two of them had been in before he left they may not have even noticed it wasn't closed.

Knocking gently, he slipped through without waiting for an answer.

Learning from his past mistake, he made sure to check behind him that Missy wasn't lurking in wait.

There was no sign of the two Gallifreyans on first glance, but as he walked further into the room, he caught a glimpse of the purple coat Missy had been wearing when he left lying over the back of the chair.

Following that breadcrumb, he headed to the back of the room, where there was a simple three-quarter bed that he had never seen any evidence of Missy using.

What he found there gave him pause for a moment.

The Doctor was lying on his back, outfit still intact apart from his shoes that had been neatly placed at the foot of the bed.

Missy was dressed more casually, having changed into long shirt that looked suspiciously like one of the Doctor's and a pair of black leggings. And she was curled into the Doctor's side like a cat, her small fingers clutching the Doctor's jacket as she slept.

As he stood there, unsure whether to wake them up or just leave, he noticed that Missy had one eye open and was watching him.

"And what did you two get up to last night?" Nardole settled on saying.

Smirking, Missy slipped out from beside the Doctor, careful not to wake him before taking the brown paper bag Nardole offered her.

Gesturing for him to follow her, she headed to the armchairs on the other side of the piano and flopped down into her usual one, peering into the bag.

"Croissants and a Danish?" She smiled as Nardole reluctantly took the chair next to him, "And here I was thinking you didn't like me."

"I don't." He said quickly, a little too quickly which had him cursing under his breath as Missy's eyebrows rose with interest.

Leaning forwards, she examined his face curiously, "Maybe not, but you don't hate me anymore, which is interesting, very interesting."

"You're not as much of a bitch as you pretend to be." Nardole muttered eventually, before biting his tongue nervously, unsure of what her reaction would be.

Missy just laughed, before delicately sinking her teeth into one of the pastries he had brought, "And what makes you think that dear?"

"Because otherwise why would the Doctor be so determined to save you from yourself, deep down, he sees something worth saving. And other people are starting to see it to." He told her smugly, finding satisfaction in the surprised look on her face.

Frowning, she suddenly seemed very focused on her breakfast and it didn't take him long to work out that she was feeling uncomfortable.

"Don't worry." He offered, "If it makes you feel better I can continue to act like I hate you in front of everyone else."

"Now that," Missy chuckled, "That would be very nice."

Considering for a moment, Missy reluctantly held out the paper bag, "Croissant?" Looking relieved when he shook his head.

"Did you and the Doctor….?" He asked slowly, trailing off as his cheeks began to flush red.

Eyes sparkling, Missy laughed at him again, as though what he had asked was the most ridiculous thing in the universe.

"Hey!" He frowned defensively, "You haven't watched you two, you're like an old married couple sometimes. I'm pretty sure there's a betting pool at U.N.I.T."

Shaking her head, Missy smiled, "That's not what we are to each other. I say best friend, because that's the closest equivalent in this horribly restricting language. But that's not enough, the Doctor is…a part of me, and I'm a part of him. But we aren't…romantically involved." She drawled, making a disgusted face at the word romantically.

"No, we're not." The Doctor agreed, leaning over to take a bite of the croissant she was holding in her hand, smiling when she allowed him to do so before slapping him in the arm in retaliation for the theft, and then taking a seat beside them, "It's nice to see you two getting along."

"Theta dear, you're wearing one shoe." Missy told him, frowning as she pointed it out.

Looking down, the Doctor nodded, "Well I was about to put the other one on when I realised the two of you were over here talking and I was interested about what you were discussing so calmly and rationally."

"Or you heard your name and ego overtook common sense, leading you to forget the shoe entirely." She supplied as an alternative, with a playful wink to Nardole.

Scowling at Nardole, who was grinning at what Missy said, the Doctor pointed at the Time Lady warningly, "You can't tease me in front of people."

"People?" She exclaimed in horror, "How rude of you, Nardole isn't people. Pets are family!"

Unsure whether to be offended or amused, Nardole watched the Doctor for his reaction.

Rolling his eyes, the Doctor just stood up and walked back to the bed to collect his other shoe, avoiding having to respond at all.

"What? No witty response Doctor?" Missy called gleefully, before returning to her breakfast contently, glancing up at Nardole thoughtfully, "What do you think, I won that one right? Of course I did, his attack eyebrows have gone up a notch."


	20. Chapter 20

" _Ushas, the last time you played with genetics you managed to make giant, cat eating, mice. Are you sure you want to do it again?" Koschei laughed, as his friend glared at him from behind her lab goggles._

" _Sure, she wants to do what again?" Theta questioned as he breezed into the lab, an hour late and with his hair sticking up oddly on one side._

 _Koschei just shook his head despairingly and smoothed out the ruffled curls, "Another late night Thete?" He questioned with a fond smile, Ushas rolling her eyes at them from behind and making faces at the rest of the Deca who were sat around the lab, working on their individual projects._

" _I was reading books about Earth." Theta gushed excitedly, "I can't wait to go Kos, I know we made a pact to see every star but we need to start with Earth. It's beautiful!"_

 _Ushas frowned as she deftly measured out chemicals into beakers, "You've never seen it, how do you know it's beautiful?"_

" _I just do." Theta pouted, "And why are you experimenting on mice again, don't you remember what happened last time? The Lord President is still mad at you."_

 _Laughing along with the rest of their friends at the irritated look on Ushas' face, Koschei reached out and brushed against his best friend's mind, providing the image of him saying essentially the same thing just moments before._

" _Keep your nose out." Ushas shook her head, pointing at the two of them, "And we all know what you two are doing, that's a bigger breach of rules than me experimenting on lab mice outside of the authorized classes."_

" _Telepathy is a vital skill for Time Lord's, we're practising." Koschei muttered defensively._

 _It was Rallon who shook his head, drawing their attention back to the young man sat behind them, his arm around Millenia's shoulders. "Hardly, if you're not careful you'll forget whose head belongs to who."_

 _Theta growled in frustration, "That's not true, it's not our fault that the Time Lords are so closed minded that they don't understand the connection we have with our telepathy. It makes us better Time Lord's, we're stronger and smarter together."_

" _It makes you more annoying." Jelpax laughed, "I overheard our tutors talking a few days ago about the two of you and how hard it is to catch you in a lie because the other will always corroborate the story. They can never tell if you're telling the truth or if your tipping each other off before they can catch you."_

 _Koschei laughed gleefully, "If they have to ask then they may as well just assume we're lying."_

" _Yes," Theta scowled, "And whatever trouble we're in, it's normally all your fault."_

Blinking as the memory faded, the Doctor smiled along with Missy who was sitting in the chair in the console room with her feet up as he stood at the scanner.

"You could have warned me you were going to start projecting into my head." He told her with a chuckle as he went back to what he had been doing before he had suddenly been reliving his academy days courtesy of Missy's sudden whim to reminisce.

"Did you ever find out what had happened to Ushas?" Missy asked him curiously, ignoring what he had said.

Shaking his head, the Doctor examined the red blips on his scanner with interest, pulling up the data on a few of the most promising looking ones, "No, after she escaped and ran off I never ran into her again. I imagine she's out there somewhere, still doing her science."

"Maybe she made more giant mice and they ate her." Missy offered with a laugh, "It certainly wouldn't surprise me, none of us ever quite worked out what she was trying to do with them in the first place."

Chuckling, the Doctor tilted his head to the side as he considered it, "Maybe she did, I don't think it would surprise me much either. I hope she's alive though, as much as I disapprove of her methods, she was, is, brilliant."

"You think I'm better though don't you Theta, even more brilliant than the Rani?" Missy pouted, a hint of jealousy in her voice.

"No." The Doctor shook his head, before grinning at the outraged, indignant screech she gave, "You would have been, but you were always too busy getting wrapped up in your little schemes to truly apply yourself."

Grumbling under her breath, Missy decided to change the subject, nodding at the screen, "So what are we doing now, because this feels suspiciously like a second take on the events that led to us being on that god forsaken colony ship being attacked by cybermen."

"That would be because it is." He told her, "I'm finding another distress signal and then sending you out again."

"Another test?" Missy rolled her eyes, "What did I do to deserve these ridiculous exercises, they're practically torture you know."

"Would you list me to write you a list?" The Doctor asked dryly, "Because it might take some time. And you're also meant to be locked in the vault for a thousand years, so really you don't have much room to complain about any of these tests I do whilst letting you our nine hundred years early."

Sighing dramatically, Missy smiled at him sweetly, "Fine, I'll play along with your little games, but afterwards I want you to take me out to a restaurant. Doesn't matter where, it can even be Earth with all your little pet humans but I want to go out, have a relaxing meal and then come home without getting shot at or shooting at anyone else. Deal?"

Nodding, the Doctor held out his hand to her, "Deal."

 **A/N: Hey guys, so because I skipped a day yesterday, here's your second for the day, and again because of that, please make sure you didn't accidentally skip chapter 19 which was only posted about four hours ago** **Please review if you can, it's incredibly helpful and I appreciate all advice and ideas! x**


	21. Chapter 21

Twisting her sonic screwdriver around in her hands, Missy stepped out of the Tardis, her sharp eyes scanning the surroundings as Nardole followed her, stumbling over the thick plant roots that covered the floor.

Rolling her eyes, she glanced back to make sure he was still on his feet before taking off into the almost Earth like undergrowth. The major distinguishing feature being the luminescence of the fauna.

"Where are we?" Nardole asked curiously, the reluctant empathy he had gained for Missy putting him far more at ease than on their last outing.

"Hmm?" Missy turned her head to him idly, before frowning slightly, "Does the Doctor truly enjoy having to explain every little thing any time he goes anywhere?"

 _Be nice._

"I was being nice." She muttered sulkily before sighing, "We're in the Andromeda Galaxy, on a planet called Katleb, it's quite similar to Earth really, humanoid natives, similar genetic make-up of the plant life."

Nardole nodded along, looking interestedly at the large leaves that were towering over them, seemingly growing straight out of the ground, "How do you know where you're going?" He asked curiously, having not missed how confidently Missy was striding in the direction of where the sun was slowly setting.

"You and the Doctor are both the same, forgetting that my entire life doesn't revolve around him." Missy shook her head in mock disappointment, double checking her screwdriver to ensure they were still heading towards the origin point of the distress signal.

Freezing, Nardole looked at her seriously, "Have you conquered this planet in the past? Are they going to end up killing us because of you?"

Smirking wickedly, baring pearly white teeth, Missy turned and took a step closer to him, "Are you scared, do you want to go running back to the Tardis?"

Swallowing determinedly, Nardole drew himself up to his full height and moved towards her until they were practically nose to nose, "Of course not, just want to know whether I'm going to be pulling you out of danger on this trip."

Missy felt the Doctor's amusement echoing through their link, he had decided to drop the running commentary that he had maintained last time, not needing to monitor using tech when the link between himself and Missy had never been stronger. Although she knew that he had also given Nardole means to communicate with him in an emergency, the Doctor may trust her to an extent but he wasn't stupid, it was far better to be prepared for anything when it came to the Mistress.

For a moment, she considered knocking the Doctor out of her head and just strangling Nardole for even insinuating that she would need rescuing, but after a deep breath in she deliberately set aside that thought, knowing it was coming from years of habit and not a genuine desire to actually do it anymore.

"Don't worry," She told Nardole, relishing in the feeling of the Doctor's pride at her for keeping herself level, "Last time I was here I was a man, it's a little beyond their comprehension to imagine that I would have changed to the extent I have. And I didn't even conquer them that much, just a little bit. Besides, I'm not the Master today remember, I'm Doctor Who." Missy nodded to herself happily as she started walking again, ignoring the frustration coming from the Doctor at her continued addition of the word who to the end of his name.

"I wasn't aware that conquering a planet was something that you could do in degrees." Nardole muttered snarkily, "I figured it was a more, all or nothing affair."

Missy chuckled, pushing through the leaves easily but allowing them to twang back and hit Nardole, uncaring that his grumbling was sounding increasingly annoyed. "I didn't kill anyone to take this planet, and I left once I had gotten what I wanted, which took barely a week by Earth standards. In comparison to other worlds, they got off very lightly."

"I'm sure that was very comforting to them." Nardole remarked.

Frowning, Missy glanced at him, "Regardless of what you may think of me I was, am, insane, not stupid. Sometimes the easiest way to get what you want is to pretend you're something you're not. I'm very good at it, it's why the Doctor is constantly worrying that at any moment the other shoe will drop and I'll reveal that I've just been working towards another scheme. Not every planet I visited lived in fear of me, it all depended on my mood really now that I think about it."

Nardole fell silent, considering what she had said as he walked along beside her.

 _Is that true?_ She felt the Doctor ask, with genuine curiosity.

Humming under her breath, she responded to him reluctantly. _Does it make a difference if it is? The fact that I didn't always destroy things to get what I wanted doesn't make me a good person. Just because I didn't always take out all the wrongs I felt the universe had done to me just because I could._

 _I thought you enjoyed wanton destruction._

 _When I hurt the worst, I made others feel it so I didn't have to._ Missy admitted softly, _But sometimes, very rarely, but sometimes there was a lull, when I almost felt what others must call peace. And when it was quiet I didn't want to make it loud again before it had to be._

The Doctor was quiet for a long moment, and Missy almost thought he wouldn't reply at all until she felt his whispered words echoing back to her, _I hate that this is a part of you I can't truly understand. I can empathise and I can imagine, but I can't really understand this thing that must eat at you every day. And because I can't understand it, I don't know how to help you, and that kills me._

 _You do help Theta._

Then it was Missy who was quiet, walking along in silence as she pushed through the forest, she felt the Doctor in the back of her mind pressing for more, but held back, unsure what to say.

 _You help me._ She repeated eventually, _More than you know. When I'm alone I get so lost, you give me something to focus on. I still feel the same, still want to hurt people, still want to do things that are…bad. But you give me the strength to choose not to, it's a choice that I didn't realise I even wanted the ability to be able to make._

When Missy had finished, she sent him a clear message on a wave of emotion, that she was done talking about it for the time being and to leave it well enough alone. Which he respected, fading back to watch what would happen next.

Missy and Nardole broke through the tree line and came to a stop at the edge of a long stretch of glowing blue grass, that led down to a small village.

"Well that's why there is a distress signal." Nardole remarked as they took in the sight in front of them.

"Indeed." Missy hummed as she counted the number of Sontaran's, "I doubt the locals are very happy with their new overlords."

 **A/N: This is going to be a multi chapter adventure, probably between three and five. Also, what do people think of our thirteenth Doctor? I've already gotten into about three arguments about it haha. It's a big change but I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. It has the potential to be a really good direction for the show to go in if they do it right.**


	22. Chapter 22

Nardole hadn't enjoyed their journey down into the small village and he was holding a personal grudge against Missy, who he was convinced had strived to make the whole thing ten times harder than it had to be.

She had insisted on waiting until the dead of night until everything had gone quiet and then she had dragged him in a circular loop around the village, until they reached a field of crops that seemed to be covered in millions of little stinging barbs that became embedded in the skin with the lightest of touches.

Missy of course, had waltzed through, emerging infuriatingly unscathed, whereas he was covered in dirt and scratches, picking out the barbs as he followed her.

They had watched the Sontaran's all day and so Missy was confident that they were holed up in the closest thing the village had to a town hall, which meant that the building they were now crouched behind held only the natives of the planet.

Edging round to the door, she held the sonic up quickly, darting inside once she heard the lock click, with Nardole in tow.

Coming face to face with a crude spear, pointed directly at her.

Straightening up now they were inside, and brushing non-existent dust from her skirt, she nodded at the man holding the weapon approvingly, "Good reaction time, although if someone breaks into your home, it wouldn't be unwise to just kill them and be done with it."

Satisfied that her words had confused him enough that he wouldn't actually kill her for the time being, Missy deliberately ignored Nardole's nervous squeak and took a seat in front of the fire, smiling at the man's family, "Hello there, children, I'm Doctor Who."

"Mayer." The youngest girl introduced herself boldly, causing Missy's smile to turn genuine.

"Well hello Mayer." Missy leaned forwards, dismissing the alarmed looks on the faces of the girl's parents, "I see you have a small problem here with some nasty aliens, now what's that about?"

Mayer's face scrunched up in confusion at the heavy, exaggerated Scottish accent Missy was suddenly speaking with, before starting to laugh, "They want us to fix their ship." She giggled, smiling widely when Missy reached out and bopped her on the nose playfully.

"A ship?" Missy asked, looking back at Mayer's father, who was looking rather lost standing in the middle of the room still holding his spear, "What's wrong with their ship?"

"They crashed here, a week ago." He told her slowly, "They took all our guns and technology, stripping everything apart to try and rebuild their ship. It isn't working, it's too badly damaged and we don't have the parts here."

Missy's eyes narrowed thoughtfully, "How many of them crashed here?"

"There's twelve."

Exchanging a look with Nardole, Missy stared into the fire.

 _And I assume killing them is completely off the table, even if they're a warrior race that will go on to cause more damage once they leave this world._

 _Humans are a warrior race, Time Lord's are a warrior race. A good friend of mine is Sontaran, not all of them are the same._

 _They're a clone species._

 _You're pretending to be me remember, figure out a way to get them off world without anyone dying, on either side._

 _We don't do it because it's easy, we do it because it's right._

 _Careful Koschei, you almost sounded as though you believed that._

 _Hardly, but if you will insist on being so boring._

"Well." Missy clapped her hands together, "Myself and Nardole here, we're just going to have to stick around for a little while and see if we can help you out."

 **A/N: Hey guys, sorry it's quite a small chapter but my head is killing me again and I just want to get to sleep. And just because I was asked about my thoughts on the new Doctor. I'm excited. I really like her as an actress and I've seen her in things before that make me really interested to see how she does because she's really talented and if they were going to cast a woman I think they made a really good choice.**


	23. Chapter 23

It was infuriating trying to make any plans with the locals when Missy flatly refused to bother learning any of their names.

When Nardole had confronted her, and said she was being ridiculous, pretending that she wasn't retaining at least some of them, she hadn't reacted well. It had taken six hours for her to reappear from her sulking and when she had, she had growled at him that the information had been deleted because it wasn't important.

The only one of them she had taken any real interest in was Mayer, who hero worshipped the Time Lady, following her around and hanging on her every word. At first Nardole thought she was just enjoying the attention, but she seemed to show a real fondness for the child when no one was paying attention.

They had been there for two days when Missy finally breezed into the living area of Mayer's home in the middle of the night, dropping a rolled-up blueprint into Nardole's hand, who had been dozing by the fire.

"What's this?" He asked her suspiciously, unrolling it slowly as she rubbed her hands together and held them out over the fire.

"What does it look like?" Missy rolled her eyes, sitting down, "Can you do it?"

Nardole openly stared at her, "You want me to do complex repairs with no equipment or parts!"

"I've already done the hard part." Missy argued, waving her hand at the blueprint.

Looking down, Nardole was interested at just how ingenious her plans for repairing the ship were, they involved stripping out all non-essential systems and using them to get the ship off the ground. The plans were an intricate step by step guide that left nothing to chance, carefully calculated, showing a focus and clarity that he hadn't realized she was capable of.

"It's good." Nardole admitted reluctantly, "But the parts aren't compatible, how do we connect them all and reroute the power. I'd need tools more advanced than anything they have here to start with. You don't even know if the parts you've earmarked to be used for repairing the essentials are operational!"

"Oh, I do know." Missy smirked.

Frowning, Nardole shook his head, "How?"

"Food, string, and staples." Missy sighed heavily, ignoring his question entirely, "At the end of the universe I built a rocket ship out of food and string and staples, to quote the Doctor himself. And I was human at the time. As much as I hate to admit it, you are an intelligent man and you can borrow my screwdriver."

Holding his hands up, Nardole nodded patiently, "Ok fine, if I can do this, and I'm not saying I can, how do you propose we avoid the Sontaran's that are constantly surrounding that ship?"

Clasping her hands in her lap, Missy looked at him for a moment before glancing across at Mayer, who was asleep on a small bed at the edge of the room, "Myself and the Sontaran's had a disagreement a while back, only minor but enough to make me a large enough distraction to get them away from the ship."

"Minor?" Nardole asked suspiciously.

Chewing on her fingernail thoughtfully, Missy stared into the fire, "They tried to attack a world I was occupying at the time."

"What did you do?" He asked her, suspicious turning to curiosity.

Missy smiled, "I needed the planet, I didn't need the Sontaran's."

"How many?"

"A full invasion fleet, none of them survived me." She sighed, although her eyes glinted with something resembling pride, "If they find out I'm here they'll try and kill me, and they'll go after me with all the force they can muster."

Nardole frowned, "Maybe we should think of another plan."

Shaking her head, Missy looked back at him, "There's a reason I'm having this conversation with you whilst the Doctor's asleep. We need a plan where no one gets killed, this is the least risky of many I have considered. The Doctor would prioritise the safety of the children, I am an acceptable loss, not that it will come to that."

"Since when are you so self-destructive? What if I can't get the repairs done in time?" He protested, "When not just knock them all out, a hit to the probic vents and then keep them somewhere safe out of the way until we're done."

"This village has nowhere suitable to safely hold them, we get one shot at this. Provide an alternative that has less risk and we'll do that, but you won't find one"

Considering what she had said, the two of them sat in silence for a while, Missy waiting patiently for Nardole's response to her plan.

"How long can you give me?" He asked her eventually.

Smiling victoriously, Missy tossed him her screwdriver, "At first light I'll draw them away, if everything goes right, you'll have five hours, then I'll lead them back. The villagers can help us knock them out and stick them on the ship. Once they're off world, chances are they won't bother coming back, but we can track them from the Tardis just to make sure."

"If you get yourself killed, the Doctor is going to kill us both." Nardole rolled his eyes, "How many regenerations do you have left?"

Missy laughed, "Lost track a while back, been meaning to find out."

"Yes, well…just make sure he puts my head back on the right way around once he's done kicking it around the Tardis." Nardole told her.


	24. Chapter 24

The Doctor hadn't stopped anxiously pacing for two hours.

After waking up, he had been immediately alarmed by the wall that had been thrown up between him and Missy, blocking him from seeing what she was doing.

He almost left the Tardis to go find out what she was up to, but then she dropped the wall and he was suddenly able to watch through her eyes as she was pursued by twelve furious Sontaran's.

Blasts from their rifles lighting up the trees as she darted in and out, leading them away from the village.

The Doctor's hearts were in his mouth as he rushed to the scanner, flicking it on, sending a silent plea to the Tardis for it to show him what Nardole was doing quickly.

As the image of the man half buried in wires with Missy's screwdriver in his hand flickered onto the screen, he began to see the outline of the plan they were working.

Two hours later, he was still going back and forth between keeping close tabs on Missy and watching the progress Nardole was making.

From what he was feeling from Missy, she had thrown herself head first into the thrill of the game she was playing with the Sontaran's, laughing wildly and dancing through the trees.

It was torturous staying put as she literally put her life on the line to buy Nardole enough time to complete the repairs, but he had sworn to her that he would trust her judgement unless she proved untrustworthy.

If he interfered, he could very well undo all the progress they had been making with each other.

 _Relax Theta._ The Doctor felt her reaching out.

 _You need to concentrate on not getting shot._ He grunted back shortly, surprising himself with how annoyed he was at her for putting herself in danger.

Missy just replied with an answering wave of amusement, _Getting shot wouldn't be too big a problem, although I do like this body and I would prefer to keep it. Getting shot too early however…_

Rather than answering in words, he just let her feel his disapproval before looking back over to the scanner, pleased with how quickly Nardole was working.

Checking the time, unnecessarily, yet again, the Doctor forced himself to sit down, knowing that he needed to try and relax before he made himself as insane as Missy.

He managed to calm himself enough to remain focused on monitoring Missy without the pacing, which was about as much of an improvement as he had hoped for.

Just over an hour and a half had past when he felt the sudden flare of panic flashed through their link followed by a sharp lance of pain that echoed through to him, making his side ache in empathy for the injury she had just taken.

 _Missy!_

 _I'm fine._ Her message was shaky but strong, as she reassured him, letting him further into her mind until he felt exactly what she did.

The rifle blast had caught her across the hip, but it had been a glancing blow and had merely burnt a line across the top layers of skin.

 _Do not let that happen again!_ He ordered.

The Doctor could feel the roll of her eyes that followed that.

 _Yes, sir!_

 _Please._ He added softly.

 _I'm fine._ Missy repeated gently, before breaking off the conversation as she took off running again, beginning to lead them back to the village in a circular path.

Looking back at the scanner, the Doctor just prayed that Nardole would be finished in time.

Stopping in the centre of the village square, Missy leaned against the edge of the small fountain, catching her breath as she waited for her pursuers to catch up.

They came around the corner in a tight group, guns raised towards the Time Lady, who was holding up her hands with a bored expression on her face.

"It's time to die, Master, for your crimes against the Sontaran empire!" The leader of the group growled out, advancing on her threatening.

"Forgive me for not being terribly frightened by the almighty space potatoes." Missy smirked, leaning down to unzip her boots and kick them to the side, as she spoke to them conversationally, "I've been running in those all day you know. I'm exhausted… At this point, shooting me is probably doing me a favour."

"You will pay for your crimes." The leader repeated helplessly, confused by her complete lack of care at the guns pointed at her.

Missy nodded, "So you said, it was a good threat, well made, I'm very proud of you. So, go on then, quick as you like."

Taking a step closer to her, the leader raised his gun until it rested just against her head.

She allowed him to get within arm's reach and then sprang forward, seizing the gun before he could react, shoving his shoulder sharply so he turned just enough before slamming the butt of the gun against the probic vent on the back of his neck.

By the time the others had chance to react, Missy had the gun pointed back at them, "No one move." She told them coldly, leaving no doubt that she wouldn't hesitate to kill any of them that dared even twitch.

Trapped in a stalemate, they froze, unsure with the suddenness of how the tables had been turned on them.

Before they could recover, the villagers that had been edging closer and closer since the Sontaran's had entered the square, hit out quickly, dropping the remaining Sontaran's to the ground to join their leader in unconsciousness.

Missy checked each of them carefully, to ensure they were really out, before nodding in satisfaction, "Very well done, you have all proved more capable that I gave you credit. Especially you," She pointed at one of the men, who's arms were shaking as he held up a wooden plank, "I was concerned you might knock out one of your own people rather than a Sontaran, well done on not killing us all."

Nardole appeared in the doorway of the hall, "Right on time." He commented, waving her towards him.

"Well I am a Time Lady, being late would just be embarrassing."


	25. Chapter 25

Taking a breath, Missy exchanged an amused look with Nardole as her fingers rested against the wood of the Tardis door. "When we go in, make sure they're gone would you?"

"Why can't you?" He questioned, but she was already gone, breezing into the Tardis and then pausing expectantly at the top of the ramp up to the platform in the console room.

The Doctor was suddenly there, appearing from nowhere and wrapping her in a fierce hug.

Nodding in understanding, Nardole slipped past the two of them, checking the scanner and smiling in satisfaction when he saw the Sontaran ship heading in a steady trajectory away from the planet.

Placing her hands on the Doctor's back, Missy patted him awkwardly for a minute before she eventually lost patience, pushing him off her roughly, "Are you done now Theta?"

Growling under his breath, he caught hold of her hand and began pulling her to the medbay, ignoring her protests.

Nardole just followed them helplessly, amused by Missy's willingness to go along with the Doctor, despite how vocal she was pretending to be against it.

"We're getting the silent treatment now." Missy winked conspiratorially at Nardole, as the Doctor pushed her down to sit on the end of a bed, rifling through the drawers in a cabinet across the room, "With any luck, this could last for a good week, I fancied some peace and quiet."

"Shut up!" The Doctor snapped over his shoulder.

Sighing, Missy leaned back, tilting her head to the side, "Relax, I'm alive, humpty's alive, everyone on that planet is alive, even the Sontaran's are alive. Success all around."

"You got shot."

"You got what?!" Nardole echoed, surprised, having not been aware that Missy had been injured at all.

Rolling her eyes, Missy frowned at the Doctor, "Barely got me, doesn't even hurt now."

Turning around and walking back to her, the Doctor gestured to her hip where he knew the wound was, "Show me."

His tone made it clear that it wasn't a request, so reluctantly, Missy peeled away the fabric covering the area, allowing them to see.

The skin around it was an angry red, and looked painful from where Nardole was standing across the room. The wound itself was a gash across the point where the hip bone was closest to the skin, stretching a hands length and steadily oozing small droplets of blood.

"You were just going to hide that?" Nardole asked her, eyes wide as she scowled at him.

"Had worse."

Squeezing her hand gently, the Doctor pulled up a chair and sat down, before carefully beginning to clean and dress the wound, using a thin layer of artificial skin to cover it. Better than any plaster, it allowed healing to happen much faster and kept out bacteria.

Once he was done, it seemed Missy's patience had run out, because she was up and out of the room before he could begin his lecture on how foolish her plan had been and how easily it could have ended far worse.

With the absence of his best friend, he turned to the other man in the room, who should have talked her out of it.

Seeing the Doctor's angry face directed at him, Nardole just started backing away, holding his hands up helplessly.


	26. Chapter 26

The Doctor was fully aware that the Tardis was actively working to help Missy hide from him by shifting around the interior of the ship, and it was infuriating.

After nearly two hours of searching he finally snapped at the Tardis angrily, "Tell her when she's ready to talk about how stupid that was, I'm in the kitchen."

Meanwhile, with her feet happily dangling in the swimming pool, Missy felt the Tardis' nudge towards the kitchen, the message clearly being passed on for the Doctor.

Sighing, she stood up and brushed off her dress, leaving the shoes discarded by the pool.

When she got to the room, she leant against the door frame, watching the Doctor who was sat at the table, his long fingers curled tightly around a mug of tea. He had made a second up presumably for her, which was sat opposite him, the steam rising towards the ceiling.

Humming to herself, Missy meandered to the table and sat down, reaching for her mug as her eyes examined the Doctor's face.

As he opened his mouth to speak, Missy shook her head, "Don't you dare." She told him sharply.

Paused by the firm warning in her voice, his eyes widened as he looked at her. "What-?"

"Don't you dare lecture me like one of your pets Theta." Missy growled softly, fixing her eyes on the mug she had taken in her hands and was holding up in front of her, "For the last eighty years I have allowed you to hold me prisoner and reshape the way I think. But I am your equal not a child, and if you attempt to treat me as anything less then you won't enjoy this conversation."

"I know." The Doctor muttered softly, trying to appease her.

Smirking, Missy took a sip of the tea before placing the mug aside, "Tell her when she's ready to talk about how stupid that was, I'm in the kitchen?" She repeated his own words back to him. "I am Gallifreyan, I am a Time Lord, just as you are. I evaluated the risks and made a choice, just as you do with every situation you face."

"You put yourself in danger, you got hurt!" He argued with her.

Missy nodded, "I did, and I probably will again. But what I did worked, and no one died. Doctor…Theta, you want something that is impossible, you ask me to do the impossible. I cannot be good if you never allow me to act, you blinded yourself to save your human, you have died again and again. If you cannot guarantee your own safety, then by your standards mine is also not guaranteed, and the only one not ok with that is you."

"I can't lose you." The Doctor admitted painfully, "Not now, we've come so far. All I've ever wanted is you with me and you got hurt because of it."

With a small smile, Missy reached out and took his hand, "How do you think I felt every time you left me locked in the vault and went flying away on your adventures?"

Tilting his head to the side in confusion, he watched her with a curious expression.

"I never knew if you would return, and if you did, whether you would still be this version of you. All your faces are you, but these bodies, these are the faces we were wearing when we became friends again and I wasn't ready to say goodbye to them yet. But we can't afford that nostalgia, we are far luckier than most species, we change but we don't die. I got hurt, but the biggest risk I was taking was possibly dooming myself to daily shaving again for the foreseeable future."

"I've just gotten used to you as a woman." The Doctor chuckled, "It suits you too much for you to go back to a man so soon."

"Well thank you dear." Missy grinned, smoothing down her coat. "I do my best to please."

The Doctor laughed, "No you don't."

"No, I don't." She agreed easily, "But I don't go out of my way to displease anymore and that's as good as you're going to get."

"I'm sorry." He admitted after a long pause, "You're right about you being my equal, I can't expect you to just keep quiet and do what I say. I could probably do with listening to you a little more than I do, provided you're not suggesting murder of course."

"A little bit." Missy said quickly, her eyes sparkling humorously, "Just a little bit here and there, you'll barely notice it, I swear."

Shaking his head, the Doctor crossed his arms over his chest, "No, not happening. Murder is bad, we've been through this, it was lesson one."

Pouting, Missy waved her hand dismissively, "It's ok, we can discuss it later when you're not so emotional."

"I'm not being emotional." He protested, "I'm not going to let you kill people, have you been listening at all for the last eighty years?"

Shrugging, she checked her nails, frowning at the dirt that had gathered under them from her run through the woods, "A little bit, but honestly Thete, you do have a tendency to drone on sometimes. Sometimes I just take a nap with my eyes open, when I wake up you're usually still going."

Smiling despite himself at the teasing wink Missy shot him, he just rolled his eyes at her, "I guess this means I owe you dinner, that was the deal, right? Where do you want to go?"

"It was, and you can surprise me. Maybe somewhere on Earth, you can show me why you love them all so much, despite common sense and sanity." She nodded happily.

"But first a good night's sleep and a shower, I smell like a forest." Missy told him, standing up and walking to the door, before pausing and looking back over her shoulder, "Oh and, no pets allowed at dinner, you'll just have to feed Nardole before we leave."

 **A/N: Hey guys, just wanted to answer a review because it was a guest one so I couldn't PM them. I was asked about Missy and the Doctor falling in love and I just wanted to clarify that that isn't what I'm trying to do. Although I do get that sometimes it may read like that. I like fics where they're together but this isn't going to be one of them, or at least I have no plans for it to be. Instead I see them as the type of friends who are basically in love with each other but not in a romantic way. It's something I see in the show as well, a push and pull that's based on a deep rooted connection that they couldn't get away from if they tried, but it's something stronger than falling in love with each other as we understand it. I don't know if that really makes sense, I hope it does, but you'll have to let me know if it does or doesn't and I'll try and explain what I'm thinking more clearly. Thanks for reading guys, and please leave a review if you get a minute, it really helps me with writing**


	27. Chapter 27

Missy was still asleep when she began to register the relentless hammering on the vault door, which dragged her into consciousness.

She didn't know whether to be pleased the Doctor was respecting her privacy enough to knock, or infuriated by him not just coming in and saving her the headache his banging was inevitably going to cause.

"Just come in!" She yelled sleepily, not bothering to even open her eyes.

Missy heard rather than saw the door swing open and the Doctor step inside, quickly making his way across the room to her bed.

"Why did you come back down here?" He questioned curiously, "I assumed you were just going to sleep on the Tardis."

Looking around thoughtfully, not even bothering to sit up in bed, Missy hummed in the back of her throat as she considered the question. "Now that it isn't really a prison anymore, I like being down here, it's familiar and safe. And more than anything…mine. The Tardis is unmistakably yours, down here are all my things, like my piano and my books, I like having a space just for me." She explained slowly, thinking it through as she was speaking.

Smiling understandingly, the Doctor brushed a stay curl back from her face, before quickly whipping off the duvet she was covered by and darting across the room with it.

Shouting angrily, Missy leapt up from the bed, demanding it back immediately, "Theta, that isn't funny!" She yelled at him, "I was comfortable, bring it back now!"

Struggling not to laugh, the Doctor shook his head. As hard as she was trying, he just couldn't be intimidated by a five-foot three woman glaring at him in her pyjamas.

And on second look, they were ones he had given to her as a joke, the shirt reading "Do Not Disturb! Working on a diabolical plan."

"Do you realize what you're wearing?" He chuckled, pointing to the words on the front of her shirt.

Glancing down, she growled furiously under her breath, "Not a word Theta." Missy told him, "If you say anything I'll do what I did the last time you stole my bedsheets."

"Of course, Kos." He assured her with a grin, before his grin turned into a smirk, "So sorry for disturbing you, should I come back later once you've finished with your diabolical plan?"

Her eyes narrowed dangerously and he had less than a nano-second to recognize the danger he was in before Missy was flying towards him.

Dropping the duvet, he ran, bolting for the door. He realized before he got halfway that he wouldn't make it so he changed tactic, darting round the piano and towards the sink, waving the screwdriver to make the faucet start spewing water all over the place in an attempt to keep Missy at bay.

It didn't work, his best friend slamming into him a moment later, catching him around the waist. But with the water now covering the floor, her momentum caused them both to hit the ground as their feet slipped.

Momentarily winded, they just lay there for a second before Missy dived at him again, and they were rolling around, wrestling like they had done when they were kids.

Despite regenerating into a female form, Missy proved to be more than a match for him, any physical advantage he might have had eliminated by her complete, unapologetic, willingness to fight dirty.

It was all he could do to wriggle out of her grasp, breathing heavily as he stumbled to his feet and raced for the door again.

The Doctor had just reached it when he felt a solid thud against his back. Turning in confusion, her second projectile hit him square in the face, cracking open as the egg yolk ran down his cheek.

Eyes widening at the sight of Missy cackling to herself as she prepared to throw another egg with frustratingly impressive accuracy, he ducked to the side at the last moment.

"Koschei don't do it!" He warned her, ducking again as another one came at him.

Laughing harder, Missy didn't stop, gleefully tossing the projectiles at him again and again.

Right up until the moment when she reached down and there were no more eggs left to throw.

Swallowing heavily, she began backing up quickly, realizing her mistake as she held up her arms to ward the Doctor off, "Theta you started it, there's no need to be petty, let's just both get ready and then we can go out to that lovely meal you promised me. Friends forgive, I forgive you for stealing my duvet, what's a few cracked eggs between friends."

Laughing himself, the Doctor didn't listen, advancing on her quickly before pausing just in front of her, listening to her babble.

"Eggs?" He chuckled, cutting her off, "Really? Does your immaturity know no limits?"

"If you don't turn around and leave then next time it will be knives." She frowned, watching him suspiciously.

Without warning, he suddenly closed the gap between them, wrapping her up in his arm as she shrieked in disgust, attempting to claw herself away from the egg yolk and shell that he was getting all over her. The entire thing made worse by the fact that they were both soaked through from wrestling on the flooded floor.

"You are such a child Theta!" She hissed as she finally got away.

Grinning, the Doctor shrugged easily, "I don't want a repeat of last time, I didn't look good bald then and I certainly don't think I'd pull it off now."

Raking her fingers through her air resignedly, satisfied that he had gotten even and their early morning antics had ended, Missy nodded with a proud smile, "You were the laughing stock of the academy for weeks, and no one could work out what could have possibly possessed you to do it."

"Letting you have unrestricted access to my room was a bad idea." The Doctor chuckled.

Rolling her eyes, Missy shoved him towards the door, "Yes well, no one is above mistakes and now I need another shower, so you go get ready on the Tardis, and I'll meet you there once I clean up this mess." She glared as she waved her hand around the vault to highlight just how much of a mess they had made of it.

"You love me really Kos!" The Doctor smiled teasingly as he headed for the door. "No matter how angry you're pretending to be right now."

"Oh yeah?" She called after him.

"If you didn't you wouldn't have just shaved my head back then, I know the things you used to do to people you didn't like, even if no one could prove it was actually you doing them." The Doctor told her.

Grinning Missy nodded her head, "Ok then, but since we're being honest, I know that you didn't care nearly as much about the fact I'd shaved your head as you acted like you did."

"Really?" The Doctor questioned.

"Definitely," Missy laughed, "Because you never took back the key to your room."

Laughing the Doctor just opened the door, "I'll see you in an hour." He called over his shoulder, before disappearing back out.

 **A/N: I just wanted to say a massive thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, making it the highest reviewed so far and lighting up my entire day as I got periodic emails with amazing messages.**

 **Writing is difficult and I have a huge amount of respect for people who can make a living out of it because it requires a level of focus and motivation that I struggle to maintain for any great length of time. I offset that by being able to write quickly which makes it a little easier but if I'm not careful writing makes me really tired and it can stop being fun quite quickly.**

 **All of you guys supporting me gives me far more motivation and inspiration than I could ever get on my own and I love you all for that. I always start a fanfic for myself, but as I go along, I write for the people who are reading it. So please continue to review if you can and if you ever have any ideas or something you want to see then I am all ears! Thank you guys**


	28. Chapter 28

Nardole glanced up as the door to the Doctor's office opened, expecting to see a student, but instead it was Missy who sauntered in.

"Where is he?" She asked him, nodding at the Tardis questioningly.

"Yeah he's in there." Nardole muttered distractedly, before glancing up again and frowning, "I'm sorry…but what are you wearing?"

Looking down, Missy tugged on the end of the long t-shirt she was wearing idly, underneath a leather jacket she had stolen from the Tardis the last time she was in the wardrobe. Her hair she had just braided along one side to keep it off her face, leaving the rest loose around her shoulders.

"He said 21st Century Earth." Missy offered in explanation, holding her arms out, "How did I do?"

Nodding approvingly, Nardole smiled, "It suits you, although I assume you'll be sticking with psychotic Mary Poppins for off world trips."

"Of course! I have standards to maintain." Missy grinned, before looking down at the papers covering the desk curiously, "What are you doing?"

"The parts of the Doctor's job that he deems too boring, or in other words, all the paperwork." Nardole sighed, "If the Tardis doesn't have anything for you to do then you could always help."

Chuckling, Missy shook her head, "Nice try, you're really selling that comic relief role. Giving me any power, even just administrative, would become a cause for regret very quickly. Really I'm doing you a favour by saying no."

"Ahh there you are!" The Doctor smiled excitedly, as he stepped out the Tardis, seeing Missy ready and waiting to go, "Shall we?"

Blowing a kiss at Nardole teasingly, Missy looped her arm through the Doctor's, allowing him to lead her out of his office door, right the way through the university and outside towards a local chip shop.

"Seriously?" She questioned him, eyebrow raised sceptically, as she saw where they were heading.

The Doctor nodded, "You need to appreciate humanity for all the wonderful things they do, chips are right up there on the list of top ten things humans do best."

Laughing, Missy rolled her eyes, "Fine, but I'll remember to be more specific in my demands next time." Allowing herself to be pulled along.

"How does it feel?" The Doctor eventually asked her curiously, after a minute of them walking along in silence, enjoying the fresh air.

Looking at him, she frowned softly, "What are you talking about?"

"Roaming around freely again after eighty years stuck in the same place." He clarified quickly, "Honestly one of my biggest worries all this time was how you would react when the day came to leave the vault. You have never liked feeling trapped, and please don't think for a moment that I don't understand how much it has cost you to be patient and work with me rather than fighting against me."

Sighing, Missy looked down as they continued walking, remaining quiet as she thought, "If anyone else had tried to do what you did, then I would have found a way to kill them. I have been in many prisons, but none of them ever felt safe before. The only thing that made it bearable was that you were the one in control, and I put my faith in our friendship, splintered though it was. But I don't really feel all that different, I certainly don't feel free."

Eyes widening in surprise, the Doctor pulled her to a stop, "You don't? Why?"

Smirking, Missy shook her head, "Of course I don't idiot, which really shouldn't be that surprising to you. Because I'm not free, and maybe I won't ever be again. I am still a prisoner as much as I have been since the execution, I just don't care about it anymore."

They had started walking again, Missy leading as the Doctor scrambled after her, "What do you mean you don't care?"

Humming, Missy reached the door of the chip shop and brushed through the door, heading straight for a table right at the back, tucked away in the corner.

As they sat down, the Doctor leaned forwards and repeated his question impatiently, "What do you mean you don't care? This seems like the type of thing you would usually care a lot about."

"If I were able to choose where I wanted to be, I would choose to stay exactly where I am." Missy told him honestly, "I am happy, I have my best friend, no one is currently trying to kill me and I have as much time as I want to play piano and read. I am an evil mastermind enjoying my retirement. The Queen of Evil has officially abdicated." She grinned happily.

Smiling along with her, the Doctor squeezed her hand before standing and heading to the counter, ordering food for the both of them before returning to Missy, who was watching the people eating around them with interest.

"Go on then." She told him as soon as he was sat back down, "Why humans, after everything they do, why do you still love them so much?"

"They're like children. So full of potential and passion, anything they want to do, they set their minds to it and then off they go. And the desire to learn, to explore, to figure out how the universe fits together. Honestly, they remind me of us when we were younger." He mused, having never really given it a great deal of thought.

Missy chuckled, "Your little pets are like us? I'm surprised they can grasp the concepts of basic engineering, let along the complicated, theoretical concepts we used to learn about."

"Yes, they're pudding brains." The Doctor agreed quickly, "But I'm not talking about intelligence, I'm talking about how excited we were about the universe. Back when we made our pact. Our perspectives are too vast, we lose the excitement after a while and a planet is just a planet, a star just a star."

"You use their ignorance as a shield against apathy?" Missy questioned.

Nodding, the Doctor shot her a small, sheepish smile, "I do, I need it, need to be able to see through their eyes what I'm still fighting for. For all the wonder and beauty that's out there."

"Maybe that was my mistake." Missy smiled, tapping her nails impatiently against the table as they watched a young man carefully balancing plates as he walked towards them, "I should have got myself a pet human years ago."


	29. Chapter 29

The two of them had sat in the small restaurant for well over three hours.

It was with great reluctance that Missy had finally admitted that she enjoyed the chips, the Doctor had been so eager for her to like them that she was sorely tempted to say she hadn't, just to spite him.

Eventually Missy had begun to get bored, and she had decided to amuse herself by making scathing observations about the people around them, remarks that seemed to be hitting the nail on the head every time.

To prove that she was right, she would slip inside their heads, gleefully projecting evidence into the Doctor's head to support what she was saying, who was torn on whether to stop her or let her continue. She wasn't doing any real harm or being wicked directly to anyone's face, but encouraging her also didn't seem like a good idea.

As the observations she was making became increasingly cruel, he quickly decided it was time to go, standing up and nodding towards the door, "Shall we?"

Sighing, Missy followed his lead, knowing full well that he would have been content to have sat there for several more hours had she not been speaking.

Being so close to the university, it didn't take them long to make their way back to the office. And when they got back, they found Nardole waiting for them, idly tapping a pen against the desk as he read a book.

"Kill anyone?" He asked immediately, expression and tone perfectly neutral as he looked up at Missy.

"Only a dozen or so." She answered, equally as casual.

Looking between them as they grinned at each other, the Doctor was just confused, "When did this happen?" He asked, waving his hand between them, "You hate each other."

Nardole made a face, "Absolutely loathe her."

"I want to put his eyes on cocktail sticks." Missy cackled, skipping threateningly close to where Nardole was sitting.

Eyes narrowing at Nardole, the Doctor shook his head slowly. Despite Missy's track record, he hadn't even flinched when she brushed past him, leading the Doctor to believe that Nardole had known full well that it was an empty threat.

"You can't be friends." The Doctor blurted out before he could stop himself.

"And why not?" Missy smirked, sitting on the edge of his desk and crossing her legs.

Shaking his head, as he tried to come up with anything that didn't sound childish or petty, eventually he settled on saying, "You've tried to kill him, he helped keep you prisoner for eighty years."

Laughing, Missy leaned forwards and patted his arm comfortingly, "Theta, I promise I will always love you most. There's no need to be jealous."

"I'm not jealous." He said a little too quickly.

Chuckling, Nardole just gave him a knowing look before holding out a piece of paper, "Kate Stewart called while you were out, she wants you to swing by so she can ask you for advice on something they've dug up."

"Did she say when she wants us?" The Doctor asked, glad for the change of subject, still not sure how he felt in the face of Missy and Nardole getting along.

Nardole nodded, "Tomorrow morning is when she recommended. She said it wasn't too urgent, no ones in danger of dying so it can wait until tomorrow."

Missy had crossed her arms and was swinging her feet lightly, "Do I have to go?" She asked when the Doctor looked at her curiously.

Sighing patiently, the Doctor nodded, "I know it sets you would rather not, but it's important. They'll never believe that you've changed unless they see it for themselves."

Muttering under her breath agitatedly, Missy jumped off the table and headed for the Tardis, "I'm going to my room, come and get me when you're leaving, if you insist on dragging me out so pointlessly."

They watched her go, concerned with how quickly her mood had suddenly shifted from happy and calm to uncomfortable and restless.

"She really hates U.N.I.T." Nardole said in surprise, having not realised before just how much of an aversion she had to the organisation.

"They have a past." The Doctor remarked wryly, before shaking his head, "Missy doesn't like being in situations she feels she has no control over. That's why there was always another scheme, another hidden twist she was waiting to spring on me. Because once she loses control she begins to panic and after that she spirals out very quickly."

"No wonder what happened with Me shook her up so badly." Nardole winced sympathetically.

The Doctor nodded, "We haven't spoken about it, but I think in Missy's head she knows that getting into a fight with U.N.I.T. would be a lose-lose situation for her. She either gets killed or captured by them, or wins and loses the friendship we're rebuilding. That's why she hates being there, because there is twice the pressure to remain calm, which makes it twice as difficult for her."

Nardole nodded in understanding, "You could always let her stay on the Tardis."

"In the long run that will cause more harm than good." The Doctor told him softly, "Hiding from what scares her won't help, confronting it head on though? That just might."


	30. Chapter 30

**A/N – Hey guys, sorry that I missed yesterday and today's chapter is so short. Long story short, my dog has been ill. Don't think it's anything major but still I've been spending my time looking after him and making sure he's ok. Tomorrow night I'm out so I might not be able to post unless I get a move on earlier in the day, but after that my lack of a social life will start benefiting my writing again haha. Thank you so much for being so patient with me guys, couldn't do it without you!**

The Doctor had known that it was a bad day for Missy from the start.

After she had left for her room, he had allowed her to have twelve hours to catch some sleep and relax before they left, although in hindsight he wondered whether they should have just gone straight away.

Despite having been comfortable and relaxed the day before in modern clothing, when she entered the console room, Missy was back in all her Mary Poppins glory.

Nardole had commented on it and nearly had his head bitten off by the irritable Time Lady, and then five minutes later she was bouncing around manically.

It had crossed the Doctor's mind to tell her to stay on the Tardis, but despite the almost frenzied behaviour she was showing, her mind when it brushed against his was under control, albeit loosely and quickly spiralling out.

He recognized the patterns she was going through, the swinging back and forth between moods was something that had been prevalent in the early days in the vault. Her need to have control causing no small amount of distress which she had no idea how to deal with.

"Missy." He muttered eventually, just before they landed in U.N.I.T., catching her attention.

 _Koschei, are you ok?_

 _Splendid Theta, what a wonderful day out._ She sent back sarcastically.

Frowning, he shook his head, _I'm serious, maybe you should stay on the Tardis._

Missy's eyes narrowed and he sighed regretfully, only then realising the mood swing she was in the middle of, she had moved beyond hyperactive into paranoia.

"Don't you trust me?" She ground out angrily, her hands balling up into fists. "I play all your little games, don't kill people, and you're still doubting me?"

Holding his hands up, the Doctor stepped closer to her, "I do trust you, but I'm concerned, do you feel like you're acting normally right now?"

It was the right question to ask, because it caused her to step back, tilting her head to the side in confusion. "What do you mean…I…?" She trailed off, taking note of how tightly her fists were clenched and the rising pain in her head.

Biting her lip, Missy sat down, placing her hand over her eyes in an attempt to ward off the headache, "I'm sorry."

Taking a seat next to her, he gently placed his hand over the one in her lap, "It's ok, this hasn't happened in a while, I think it caught us both by surprise. Do you want to stay on board and I'll go see Kate by myself."

Missy was quiet as she thought it over, before shaking her head, taking a few deep breaths before looking up at the Doctor.

"I'll be ok, I promise, I'll stay quiet and close to you."

"Are you sure?" He questioned carefully, not wanting her to feel as though he was placing pressure on her to do something whilst she was feeling so unstable.

"Just let me stay by your side and I can do it." She told him firmly, eyes clear and bright as she brought herself back to feeling more grounded.

Staring at her thoughtfully, the Doctor nodded, "Ok then."


	31. Chapter 31

If Kate had noticed how clingy Missy was being towards the Doctor, she had wisely decided not to mention it, which was probably best for all involved.

The Time Lady hadn't moved more than a metre from his side in the time they had been there, remaining quiet, but exchanging a small nod of greeting with Kate which had really been more of a quick jerk of the head.

They were in a side room, filled with U.N.I.T. scientists, who were all crowded around a pulsating rock on the table, which was casting a purple glow over everyone's faces.

Running his screwdriver over the rock, the Doctor held up the device thoughtfully, "And what is it you wanted to ask me about this?"

"We aren't getting any harmful readings off it." One of the scientists explained, an ecstatic smile of her face as she watched the Doctor with an expression of awe.

Looking over at Kate, the Doctor just frowned, cutting her off, "I take it she's new?"

Chuckling, Kate just nodded in confirmation.

Looking crestfallen, the scientist took a breath before continuing, attempting to pull together a professional detachment, "Well, we can't get any harmful readings off it that we have a reference for in our archives, but with the pulsing it's making we're concerned that it could be giving off some sort of radiation that we just can't detect."

Nodding approvingly, the Doctor held up the sonic as though she was supposed to be able to understand the series of beeps it was making, "Very wise of you to be cautious, of course, seeing as how you've all put yourselves in a room with it for several hours already you might want to review how you handle potentially dangerous items."

It was almost comical how all the scientists took a simultaneous step backwards away from the table.

"Doctor, stop tormenting them," Kate admonished, "Do you know what it is or not?"

Smiling at her, he turned to Missy, "Do you?"

Eyes flicking up to his for reassurance, Missy took a breath to centre herself before taking a step closer to the table, hovering her fingers just above the surface of the rock.

"Simple space debris, from very far away." She told him confidently, before glancing at the questioning looks from the humans in the room, "The purple glow is a type of radiation, but it's completely harmless to your kind. You now have a shiny rock, how exciting." Missy drawled sarcastically.

Kate sighed, "So it's worthless."

The Doctor shook his head, "Of course not, better than a lava lamp, you never have to plug it in."

Laughing, Kate led them out of the lab, back into the main control hub, where people were busily milling about.

They were halfway back to where the Doctor had parked the Tardis, when he noticed that Missy was missing from his side.

Turning around, he was just in time to see her shove one of Kate's people to the side, who'd been painstakingly examining a small device, yanking out a bundle of wires before anyone could stop her.

Everyone froze for a split second, before every gun in the room was pointed at Missy, who was suddenly back to being the enemy, as the scientist she had pushed clutched her arm in pain from where she had banged it against a microscope on the desk.

The Doctor recognized the panic that flared in Missy's eyes, stepping forwards to calm her down before someone did something stupid.

But it was too late, the overzealous soldier behind her took a step closer, the barrel of his gun angled directly between her two hearts.

Hearing the echo of his step behind her, Missy spun round on instinct, lashing out with a powerful blow that had the man down on the ground before anyone could react.

Then there was the deafening sound of several gun shots, but Missy wasn't there any more, having bolted for the Tardis. And the Doctor could have sworn that he saw his old girl open the door for his best friend, allowing her to get inside before anyone else even realised where she had gone.

"Everyone stop, now!" Kate yelled out furiously, physically pulling a gun out of the hands of a young-looking soldier stood to her right, "Did I give the order to fire?!"

"She attacked me!" The man Missy had punched growled out, rubbing at his jaw, "The Doctor may be our ally but the Master is a dangerous pet to be keeping."

To everyone's surprise it was the Doctor who reacted, slamming the man into the wall and holding him by the collar of his shirt, "You pointed a gun at her! Were you expecting her to take that lying down? Quite frankly I'm surprised that all she did was hit you!" He snarled, before dropping him and crossing the room to the table that held the device Missy had broken.

Holding it up, the Doctor looked around the room, "Does anyone know what this is?"

At their blank faces, he shook his head angrily, "This is, was, a bomb. You," He pointed at the scientist that has been working on it, "If Missy hadn't have deactivated it when she did, you and everyone else in this room would probably be dead by now. These are incredibly temperamental, if you'd have breathed on it too hard you could have set it off. It's only by dumb luck that you lasted this long."

No one said anything, unsure of what to say that could change the disappointed look on the Doctor's face, which was worse than his anger had been.

It was Kate who eventually drew his attention, stepping forward and touching his arm lightly, "We're very sorry Doctor, I will personally see to it that nothing like this happens again."

"That monster has killed so many people, how were we supposed to react?" Someone argued weakly, stopping at the Doctor shot a glare their way.

"With a little common sense and thinking. If the Doctor's right then she just saved all of us." Kate countered, "And if there's one person I trust completely, it's him."

"Good." The Doctor nodded in satisfaction, "Next time you call Kate, it had better be an emergency, because there isn't going to be any more of these social calls until you get your people in line. This shoot first, ask questions later habit needs to stop before someone does something they can't take back."

Without waiting for a response, he disappeared into the Tardis.


	32. Chapter 32

Walking back into the Tardis, the Doctor had expected to have to go looking for Missy, to find her hours later when she finally decided to show herself.

What he found instead surprised him, Missy was sat in the main console room expectantly, watching him cautiously as he stepped in.

"Are you ok?" The Doctor asked her softly, staying back, allowing her to indicate whether it was ok for him to come closer.

Tilting her head to the side as she watched his expression, she eventually nodded, tossing the small bundle of wires she was still grasping towards him. "I'm not going to apologize for defending myself."

Giving her a small smile, the Doctor edged closer at her inviting wave to the seat beside her, sitting down, "I wouldn't expect you to, they reacted rashly."

Missy sighed, "Giving them something to react to was my fault, and that I do apologize for."

Chuckling, the Doctor patted her arm comfortingly, "Every time you apologize for something I believe it a little more, one day you might even be able to manage it without wincing."

Smirking, Missy just shook her head, "I doubt that." She paused for a moment, before turning to him questioningly, "What should I have done differently? If I had waited it could have been too late. Just because they hadn't blown themselves up yet didn't mean that it wasn't going to happen in the very next second."

"I know." The Doctor told her, "But you could have told her to stop and then explained yourself."

Shaking her head in denial, Missy laughed scornfully, "They hate me. They wouldn't have listened."

"Maybe." He acknowledged, "But after today, I think they just might. Acting first is a habit that won't be easy to break, but humans and other races require further explanation, they don't work on blind faith."

Resting her head in her hands, Missy muttered to him out of the corner of her mouth, "Sometimes I wonder why we're even bothering with all this, I feel like I'm never going to remember all of these ridiculous rules."

Placing his hand over hers, the Doctor smiled, "Not killing people is rule number one, everything else is forgivable. If that had happened a hundred years ago each and every one of them would have been dead. The fact that all you did was punch someone is a victory in itself."

Missy growled in frustration, "I wanted to do so much more than that."

"But you didn't."

"Because you wouldn't want me to!" She snapped at him, "Shaping my actions to the opinions of another isn't being good, it's playing a part."

Staring at her, the Doctor floundered for a moment before taking a deep breath, "Maybe you're right, but by you saying that, then you prove that you realise what you did was still the right choice. Isn't that how anyone learns right from wrong? By following the examples of others? Like children with their parents."

"I'm not a child." Missy argued.

"Don't I know it." The Doctor laughed, "A child would be easier to deal with."

Rolling her eyes, Missy leaned her head against his shoulder, "Fine, so maybe it's true and I'm not a complete lost cause, but this is going to take a long time yet."

"Nine hundred years to go." He smiled cheerfully.

 **A/N: Hey guys, just wanted to let you all know for everyone who asked that my dog's all better now haha, which is a massive relief because I love him much more than I pretend I do to the rest of my family!**


	33. Chapter 33

Missy had completely pulled up half the floor panels in the console room and was digging around when Nardole stuck his head into the Tardis.

"He's not here." She called back over her shoulder, "Think he might be on the roof if you need him urgently.

Nardole shook his head, coming closer and sitting on the edge of the floor, legs dangling down into the hole she had created, "It can wait, I heard your visit to U.N.I.T. wasn't exactly smooth yesterday.

Frowning, she glanced at him, before sighing and pulling out a handful of wires, leaning back to avoid the flurry of sparks. "Yes, well, he really should have seen that coming. He may have got high grades in the Academy but he is awfully dense sometimes."

Giving her a small smile, Nardole waved to the open wiring, "Anything I can help with whilst I'm here?"

"Sure, hold this."

Without thinking, he took hold of the cable end she was offering, yelping and dropping it immediately when it sent a shock up his arm.

Clutching her side as she laughed at the surprise looked on his face, Missy pointed, "What's wrong, you look like you've had a sudden shock?"

With Missy cackling at her own joke, Nardole just watched her, shaking his head.

"That's a terrible joke, electrocuting me for such a ridiculous punchline is incredibly rude of you." He complained, rubbing at the palm of his hand.

Sighing, Missy just stared at him sadly, "There's no accounting for taste."

"What are you two doing?" The Doctor asked as he walked into the wreckage that was his console room, with half the floor missing and parts strewn across the entire place.

"Just a few little repairs." Missy sang cheerfully.

Floundering, he held up his hands helplessly, "You've pulled up half the room."

Waving him off dismissively, she exchanged an amused look with Nardole, "It was in the way."

Frowning at her, Nardole turned to eye the Doctor reproachfully, "Your pet psycho's been electrocuting me for her own amusement. Bodily harm not been covered in your how to not be an evil mastermind class yet?"

"Oh I just take a nap during those lectures." Missy smirked, holding up a piece of metal pipe, which Nardole took gingerly, half expecting it to blow up in his face.

When it didn't he let out a sigh of relief. "Where have you been?" Nardole asked the Doctor curiously, who was watching Missy ferreting about with amusement.

"Looking at the stars, trying to decide where to go next. I think we all need a nice day out."

Missy popped back up, staring at him coolly, "If you try taking me hiking again I may actually kill you. My fashion is hardly suitable for cross country anymore."

"Fresh air is good for you." The Doctor began to argue.

"Theta." Missy cut him off, "If I want fresh air I can open a window, I am not going to walk for hours without reason. Only humans would consider walking to be a hobby."

"Fine, you know she was always like this." He told Nardole, "Koschei could have easily graduated with top marks in all of our classes, but she's lazy. Unless it's one of her diabolical schemes she had the attention span of a goldfish."

Missy narrowed her eyes, "And you weren't lazy? You had zero attention span for the projects they gave us. Unless you could go off on a wild tangent you were bored."

"If I hadn't lent you my notes in our third year, you would have failed the end of year exam." The Doctor countered smugly.

Smirking, Missy shook her head, "Nice try Theta, but I know that those were Ushas' notes that she let you borrow in the first place."

Clenching his teeth in frustration, the Doctor eventually just turned away, "Fine, no hiking. You can choose, but I have the right to veto it if you choose something ridiculous."

Missy smiled in satisfaction, "Deal, now both of you get out whilst I finish up here. I'll let you know where I've chosen in an hour."

"I mean it." The Doctor told her as he headed for the door, followed by Nardole, "A sensible suggestion or I'll make you sit down and watch human science fiction movies."

Missy practically shuddered, calling after him, "Well we all want to avoid that. One hour Doctor, don't be late!"


	34. Chapter 34

The Doctor and Nardole half expected the Tardis to still be in pieces when they walked back through the doors.

To their surprise, not only had Missy completely reconstructed everything she'd taken apart, she had lovingly cleaned the entire room, polishing all the handrails so they gleamed.

"Don't stare too hard, your eyeballs may pop out." Missy chuckled lightly from behind them, before a serious edged leaked into her voice, "Actually I would avoid the main corridor leading to the swimming pool, I haven't got around to finishing up down there yet and your eyeballs may very well be at risk."

Shaking his head disapprovingly, the Doctor turned to face her, noticing that she was once again back in her 21st century, casual clothes. "Ok, you need to make sure that whatever you're doing on the Tardis, you're not effectively leaving booby traps lying around my ship."

Missy scowled irritably, "What's exploding eyeballs between friends, a little regeneration energy and we'll be good as new again."

Nardole raised his hand, "Erm, I won't!" He exclaimed, sounding offended.

Smirking, Missy slipped past them, "Don't worry, as long as you don't decide to go swimming without eye protection you'll be fine." Waving him off cheerfully.

"Where are we going?" The Doctor asked, gesturing to the clothes she was wearing, "Or are we staying on Earth again today?"

Nodding, Missy stuck her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket. "I want to do something I've never done before."

Tilting his head to the side curiously, the Doctor took a small step closer to her, "And what can there possibly be here on Earth that you haven't done yet?"

Smirking, Missy brushed past him, heading for the door, "Horse riding."

* * *

In hindsight, it hadn't been the greatest idea to follow blindly along with Missy's suggestion, the Doctor thought as he walked back into his Tardis, muscles aching.

Nardole was in a similar position, neither of them particularly well made for horse riding.

Missy, on the other hand, had loved it, she had marched straight up to the most violent looking animal in the stable they had gone to and hopped the gate into his stall.

The stable assistants had looked close to heart attacks before the Doctor reassured them, rather unhelpfully, that if she lost a finger she'd grow it back eventually.

To everyone's surprise, the demonic looking horse had loved the tiny Scottish woman who was leaning against his neck and cooing down his ear.

He hadn't hesitated to allow her to drape the saddle over his back, and despite the snap of his teeth towards his caretakers as Missy rode him past, he was perfectly behaved for the Time Lady.

She had been unhappy when it was time to come back, but with a sigh the Doctor had assured her that he wouldn't stop her coming back whenever she wanted to so she had perked up.

And then came the thirty-minute walk home, which consisted of her continued gushing over how handsome and sweet natured her horse had been. Which no one but her believed was true.

Missy skipped past them into the Tardis, heading off to her room, but when a chime from the console caught his attention, the Doctor called her back, a strange edge to his voice.

"What have you been doing?" He asked slowly, taking a breath and forcing himself to give her the chance to explain rather than jumping to conclusions.

Confusion etched on her features, she attempted to get a look at the scanner but he blocked it from view.

"Well how am I meant to tell you if you won't let me see what you're looking at?" She asked him, annoyance colouring her voice.

Stood behind the Doctor, Nardole took a peek at the scanner himself, but with the words in Gallifreyan he wasn't able to glean any further insight into what had the Doctor suddenly on edge.

"Tell me what you think you could have done and I'll tell you if you're right." The Doctor countered, wanting to see if she would be honest with him.

Missy seemed genuinely perplexed as she searched his face for any indication of what he could be so annoyed about.

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about." She told him firmly, "Perhaps one of the repairs I have done has had an unfortunate side effect and if it has then I am sorry. But I haven't intentionally done anything bad, I swear it."

Frowning at her sincerity, his eyebrows creased as he looked at her, "So you haven't been searching for the Rani?" He asked her eventually.

A sudden excited look gleamed in her eyes as she pushed past him to look at the scanner for herself.

"She is alive!" Missy cried out happily, "When I set it up to look I never believed the Tardis would be able to find her."

Knocked off balance by her shameless joy at discovering evidence of the Rani's continued existence, the Doctor righted himself from where Missy had knocked him against the console and came to stand at her side, "Ok, let me try again, why have you been searching for Ushas?"

"Remember we spoke about whether we thought she could be alive?" Missy told him easily, without requiring any further prompting, "I wanted to know for sure. There are so few of us left Theta, is it really so bad that I wanted to know that one of our best friends in the entire universe was still alive?"

Sighing, he shook his head, "No, I suppose it isn't. Although I wish that you had spoken to me first."

"Why?" Missy asked him, "Asking the Tardis to keep an eye out did no one any harm, and had no impact on our day to day lives. If you hadn't been here and it was me who first saw the alert then I would have come to get you straight away."

As her mind brushed against his, he felt the truthfulness in what she was saying, "Fine, you're right, I may have overreacted. So, what do you intend to do now that we know that not only she's alive but also where she is?"

"We go see her." Missy said, as if it was the most obvious thing ever.


	35. Chapter 35

"Will you be quiet?!" Missy hissed back at Nardole and the Doctor, who were complaining as they trudged through the knee-high water that filled the cavern they were standing in.

The Doctor scowled at her, "We don't know if this is even the right place, for all we know this is just a random cave that we've happened on."

Just then Nardole shrieked, jerking backwards from something under the surface of the water that had just tried to take a bite out of him.

Missy just grinned, raising a delicate eyebrow as she looked to the Doctor victoriously, "Well there you go, the Rani always booby trapped her lairs."

Before the Doctor could bite off a retort, a tidal wave of water suddenly caught him behind the legs, sweeping him off his feet and straight into Missy, the two of them being carried along by the sudden influx of water.

Barely managing to keep their heads above the surface, they had no idea where they were being taken until they were suddenly deposited rather roughly onto a rocky floor, Nardole landing just beside them.

Pushing herself up onto her elbows, Missy looked down at the Doctor, who was grimacing at the pain in his ribs from where she had fallen on them, "See? Now do you still need more evidence?"

"Evidence of what?" Came a cold voice from above them.

Missy's eyes lit up excitedly as she bounced to her feet and gathered the other Time Lord in her arms, practically swinging the Rani round, who was looking more and more murderous by the second.

"Missy!" The Doctor hissed warningly, as he saw the Rani's hand twitch towards the gun on her hip.

Ignoring him completely, Missy just reached down and tossed the gun away, "Now, now Ushas, it's not nice to shoot your friends. Don't worry, I always forget that too, so I forgive you. But I don't want any nasty bullet holes in my nice coat."

Eyes widening, the Rani looked into Missy's eyes questioningly, before tentatively reaching out with her mind.

 _Koschei?_

Missy's answering grin was answer enough, but just in case it wasn't clear, she took a step back and span in a circle before bowing dramatically, "In the flesh, I've regenerated a few times since I last saw you. Although it seems you have too."

Smoothing down the fabric of her jacket, the Rani smiled, her youthful looking face failing to reflect the long years of her life, red hair falling across her eyes as she glanced down at herself. "Three regenerations have come and gone since our last meeting." Then her eyes sharpened, "Why are you here? And who are your two pets?"

Glancing back slyly, Missy just laughed when the Doctor shook his head, "No way, I'm not going along with that." He told her, "It's me Rani." He told his old friend, reaching out to her telepathically to fill in the blanks.

"That one's his pet." Missy supplied as an afterthought, jerking her head towards Nardole.

"You're old Theta." The Rani sniffed irritably, looking between the two of them, "What world ending catastrophe has the two of you in the same room without an attempted murder?"

Missy gave a small shake of her head, along with a warning glance to the Doctor, "It's a long story, but I wanted my best friend back, and I was willing to make certain sacrifices to meet that end."

"And you're here…?" The Rani prompted, patience beginning to wear thin.

"Because you're our friend too." Missy told her genuinely, "We didn't know if you were alive or dead, and it mattered to us."

The Rani stiffened in surprise, staring openly at Missy, who didn't seem to care that the Rani was looking at her like she's just grown another head. "Who the hell are you and what have you done with the Master?"

"Stabbed him in the back, he wanted me to leave Theta for dead." Missy drawled, her Scottish accent leaping to the forefront as her eyes grew sharper, "I never believed myself to be the self-destructive type, but there you go."

Expression shifting to being reluctantly impressed, the Rani's lips quirked up into a small smile, "Only you would be crazy enough to kill a previous incarnation of yourself. I've missed you Koschei." The Rani told her honestly.

"Off course you have, I'd miss me too," Missy smirked, before slipping past the other Time Lord to head deeper into the caves, "Any giant mice I should be aware off?" She asked redundantly, seeing as how she didn't bother to wait for a reply.


	36. Chapter 36

Following after Missy, both the Rani and the Doctor winced in sympathy when they heard a surprised shriek and then a muffled groan of pain from ahead of them.

At the Doctor's concerned look, the Rani shook her head quickly, "She'll live. Most of the traps past this point are designed to be dangerous only if something has happened to me, to protect my research. The others can be painful, but none are fatal."

Taking her words on faith for now, he nodded in acknowledgement before continuing on in silence, although the Rani could feel the glances he kept directing at her when he thought she wasn't looking.

Eventually she sighed and drew them to a halt, even as they heard another crash from ahead that indicated Missy had managed to trigger another of her defences, "What is it Doctor? I imagined many reactions if we were ever to meet again. Confusion wasn't one of them."

"You just seem different somehow." He told her softly. "The years seemed to have mellowed you."

Smirking, the Rani shook her head, "Keep believing that if you wish. But I warn you Theta, should you try and interfere with any of my work you will see just how wrong that statement is."

Resuming their walk, the passage they were in soon opened out into a large cavern that had been kitted out with state of the art lab equipment, thousands of years beyond what Earth had.

They found Missy on the floor in the middle of the lab, looking dazed as she stared up at the ceiling but otherwise unharmed.

Sighing, the Rani knelt at her side and snapped her fingers to draw Missy's attention, "You ok Koschei? Maybe this will teach you to think first in the future."

Eyes clearing, Missy cackled, allowing the Rani to pull her to her feet, "Unlikely. I'm insane now dear, hadn't you heard?"

"You've always been insane." The Rani rolled her eyes.

Shaking her head, Missy leaned in, a grin pulling at her lips, "Yes, but now I think I could be good. I have been infected with morality, and I'm concerned that it might be starting to take." Her face twisted in disgust, "You know he made me apologize to a human for trying to make her into a pancake? And the worst part is that, I think if I did it again I might mean it a little bit."

The Rani's eyes snapped to the Doctor's, expecting him to laugh and reveal the joke they were playing, but instead he had eyes only for Missy, and they were burning with a fierce sense of pride at what she'd said.

"What is happening?" The Rani muttered under her breath as she stalked away to her workbench, hurriedly clearing away anything that was immediately dangerous in case any of her guests decided to touch what wasn't theirs. Namely, Missy.

Taking a deep breath, she turned around and fixed them with a stern look of warning, "What is it that you're expecting to happen now you're here?" She demanded, directing her words more to the Doctor than Missy, "I don't know how you managed to pull her back from the cliff edge that she lived her life dancing along, but you can't do the same to me. I don't want to change who I am, I have stopped killing for the most part, because it draws attention, but if I felt it would benefit me I would in an instant. That puts us on opposite sides of whatever this game you're playing is."

Sighing, the Doctor exchanged a look with Missy before shaking his shoulders, "Honestly, the only reason we came, was to see for ourselves if you were still alive. I don't think you're evil Ushas, you never were, you just didn't let something as mundane as morality hinder you when it came to your science. And while I disagreed with your methods, your brilliance was never in doubt."

It was Missy who answered when he stopped talking, as she shook her head in disappointment, "So many words, and you completely failed to answer the question. And to think, Ushas, that you thought it was me who loved the sound of my own voice!"

Grinning, Missy locked eyes with the other Time Lady, who was hurriedly wiping away the small smile that had played across her face before she could stop it. "If you're not hurting anyone with your experiments and research, then I'm sure he'll cope. I expect that we'll catch up with each other and then we will leave you in peace to continue your work. But we'll stay in contact, we're the only three Deca left, that means something, if not to either of you, then to me."

It was the first time that the Rani had ever looked into the Master's eyes since leaving Gallifrey, and seen not only a total lack of insanity, but also, a hint of warmth and affection hiding just beneath the surface.

Frowning, the Rani just stared, struggling to reconcile this version of her former classmates with all the ones that had come before. "Was there a problem during your last regeneration? Was your mind scrambled up even worse than usual?"

The Rani's surprise only deepened when instead of a flippant remark, Missy recoiled with a look on her face that could only read as hurt, leaning closer in to the comforting presence of the Doctor.

"Do you really think so little of me Ushas?" Missy asked softly, "Was I really so bad?" The second question was directed up at the Doctor. Although she needn't have bothered, his mind protectively tangled up with hers.

Shaking his head with a gentle smile, he sighed, "You're forgetting again that other people can't feel what we do. Even at your worst, I could still always feel the affection you held for me, no matter how twisted up that became and how cruel your actions were."

Shrinking backwards, Missy's eyes were downturned as she retreated towards the entrance they had came in through, bumping into Nardole as she went.

Reacting instinctively, she shoved him away in fright, having not expected to feel someone at her back whilst she was distracted.

Recognizing the jittery motions of her hands and the way she had started bouncing on the balls of her feet, the Doctor took a careful step closer, exchanging a look with Nardole who nodded that he was fine.

"Missy, look at me." He coaxed her, as he saw her eyes flicking to everywhere and anywhere except at him.

"How bad do I have to be that even another psychopath is stunned by me showing the slightest bit of sentimentality?" Missy sang out suddenly, the words not matching any discernible tune, but then they never did once she started becoming distressed.

Chancing another step closer, the Doctor shook his head, "How bad did you have to have been." He corrected firmly. "Past tense."

He opened his mouth to speak again, but when he did he felt a jarring pain echo through his skull as the shields between them snapped up, throwing him clear of her mind.

Although he didn't need their link to see the madness that had begun dancing in her eyes, latching on to her doubt and self-loathing.

"Theta?" Came a wary question from behind him, but he waved the other Gallifreyan back.

"It's ok Ushas." He told her quickly, before focusing on his best friend, "Missy don't shut me out, we've talked about this. You know how you're acting right now isn't your normal behaviour. You're hurting, but none of that's you anymore. You're my best friend and I need you to be ok. Let me in Koschei."

Jaw tightening, Missy took in a sharp breath before jerking closer towards him and forcing herself to drop her shields again.

The Doctor was at her side instantly, tangling his hands in her hair as he leaned their foreheads together. Extending the tendrils of his own consciousness to run across hers, attempting to smooth over some of the many jagged edges.

Her shoulders shook as she struggled to push down the squirming ball of anxiety and confusion swirling in her stomach. "Why does this keep happening?" Missy snapped in frustrated as she focused on the positive memories that the Doctor was leading her through.

"Because you've been through a lot of bad things, and they've made it difficult for you to control your actions when a strong unexpected emotion hits you without warning." The Doctor explained gently. "Although in this case, I think I need to apologize, the night we spoke of Gallifrey was a bad night for you. I should have foreseen a similar reaction to seeing Ushas again."

Putting aside her confusion the Rani stepped closer, making sure she was caught in Missy's eyeline, before gently laying a hand on her shoulder, "I am also sorry, for reacting so harshly, of course the two of you matter to me. You are my oldest friends and no matter how much we all fought, I have never forgotten our childhood on Gallifrey together."

The insanity receding for the time being, Missy cracked a smile and turned from the Doctor, gathering up the Rani in her arms and squeezing tightly, uncaring when the Rani made no move to reciprocate the hug.

Shaking his head quickly, the Doctor warned her not to mention the sudden swing back to a good mood.

"We need to go out." Missy told them firmly, "Let's go conq- I mean save a planet." She corrected quickly when she saw the narrowing of the Doctor's eyes. "Or just have some fun, want to have a party Doctor?" She purred mischievously, releasing her grip on the Rani to quirk an eyebrow at him challengingly.

"You and parties are trouble." He sighed, "They always end in a fight and me having to physically carry you away from them."

The Rani chuckled behind them, "I think we should, it reminds me of home. How long did our tutors have us grounded after our fifteenth-year party? Jelpax had to drag Vansell down from the roof twice, and you and I Koschei? Well, wasn't that the night we accidentally released my giant mice?"

Eyes sparking in recognition, Missy nodded, "It was! And Millennia and Rallon tried to help us catch them while Thete distracted our tutors. "

"Which didn't work because you came screaming around the corner to run, and then collapsed against the wall and fell asleep Kos." The Doctor rolled his eyes, "I nearly had them believing me. And because of you we didn't get to go any field trips until the next year."

"Please Thete?" Missy asked him sweetly. "It will be fun."

Amused by the hopeful look on their faces, the Doctor caved, reluctantly nodding, "Fine, but we'll go out on Earth, and no weapons and no Gallifreyan alcohol until we get back to the Tardis and she can lock us all in to a room where we can't break anything too important."

"Fine dad," The Rani quipped playfully, swept up into the nostalgic feeling caused by the three of them being together again. We promise to do it your way."

As the Doctor turned to talk to Nardole, who was growing redder as he struggled to hold in his protests, Missy and the Rani caught each other's eyes and smirked knowingly.


	37. Chapter 37

"Sir, this is the worst idea you have ever had, and according to your wife you've had some monumentally bad ones in the past." Nardole groaned, trailing after the Doctor as he tidied the kitchen and set out food and drinks for when they returned to the Tardis.

Setting out the last plate, the Doctor sighed and turned back to his red-faced companion, "Nardole, this isn't something new to me. We used to do this all the time back home."

"And since then, your friends have become villains, notorious for causing death and destruction throughout the known universe." Nardole countered. "How are you really expecting this to go?"

"Look, Earth alcohol does very little for Gallifreyans. We'll just go out, have a little non-violent fun, and then come back here. And once the three of us are in this room, the Tardis is going to seal us in, so we can't go anywhere until you come and release us in the morning. I've thought it through."

Shaking his head, Nardole's eyes narrowed, "And if Missy loses control of herself? You and I both know that whilst she come a very long way in making the right decisions, once you allow her to become inebriated the fragile control that she does have may shatter."

Smiling, the Doctor placed a comforting hand on Nardole's shoulder, "I know my best friend, Koschei was always a very happy drunk. A little mischievous yes, but as long as no one picks a fight with her, she'll be perfectly content."

"And your other friend, whom you haven't actually seen for hundreds of years? The one whose only reason not for killing people is that it would inconvenience her?"

The Doctor nodded slowly, "Ushas isn't evil, never was. But you're right, she doesn't make any decisions based on morality and what's right. That being said, the happiest I ever saw her was at our parties at school. It was the closest to loving and sentimental as she got and whilst I will never get her to base her actions on her own sense of right or wrong. Maybe I can get her to based on her continuing friendship with Missy and I."

"You've thought a lot about this." Nardole grumbled.

Grinning, the Doctor inclined his head, sliding on his sonic sunglasses as he straightened the collar of his nice jacket that he'd donned for the occasion, "Missy was right, we're all that's left, the three of us. The two of them are the closest friends I have ever had. Yes, I have human friends, and I have loved each and every one of them. But they're my own people Nardole, they understand me in a way no one else will! I tried to harden myself to that all those years I had them as enemies, but now I have a chance to really get back what I lost."

Nardole considered for a long moment, before bobbing his head and stepping aside, "Ok then Sir, I'll see you in the morning then. Just don't forget that I still have your wife's permission to kick your arse so be careful, or you'll have me to answer to."

Smiling in thanks, the Doctor started to step past him before pausing and touching his shoulder after a moments hesitation, "I'm very glad to have you Nardole." He said honestly, before he could think better of it, "Your friendship is important, and I am very grateful for everything you have done for me."

Following him to the control room, Nardole did his best to look unaffected by the most heartfelt exchange he'd ever had with the Time Lord.

Stepping into the main room, they both halted as they saw Missy standing at the console, carefully doing her makeup in the reflection from monitor.

"Wow." They both muttered.

Turning to face them, Missy smirked, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she twirled for them, "Like it?"

The silky purple dress she was wearing swirled around her upper legs, pulled in at the waist with tightly laced corset that showed off her curves in a way that none of the previous outfits they had seen her in had done justice.

Knee high boots hugged her calves, and her hair has been meticulously brushed out and then small sections had been braided, with thin strips of silver threads entwined within the braids.

"You look amazing." The Doctor told her honestly, "Planning to meet someone tonight?"

Her face twisted in disgusted, "Please, how many times must I express my horror over the reproductive frenzy of this horribly limited species? No," She told them, eyes sparkling with mischief, "Do you remember how vain the Rani was whilst we were at the Academy? She prided herself on being the most beautiful and best dressed whenever we went out. Well tonight I finally have the body to beat her. I thought I may as well use it."

Laughing, the Doctor crossed the room and plucked the mascara from her hand, motioning for her to look down as he fixed an uneven spot on her right eye. "I can't imagine she stands a chance against you this time. And I'm very glad that you're competing fairly, and not resorting to sabotage."

"Please," Missy chuckled, "Have you seen this body? I have no need to cheat. Are you ready?"

Suddenly feeling underdressed, the Doctor smoothed down his shirt before nodding, "Yes, I am. I'm sorry I have to ask, but have you got any weapons with you?"

Shaking her head, Missy smiled resignedly, "None at all, do you want to check."

"No, I trust you." He told her firmly, taking her hand as they started to the door.

"Really?" She asked him softly.

"Really." The Doctor nodded firmly, "You said you have none, I will take your word for it. I'm going to be watching Missy, I have to be, but I am going to take you at your word."

Missy's eyes were warm when she looked up at him, "I won't make you regret it."

 **A/N: Hey guys, I wanted to check in with you and ask, what do YOU want me to do about the Doctor's regeneration. I always planned to hold off the regeneration until we knew who the next Doctor was going to be ect.. But the question is, do I let him regenerate soon or keep the Doctor as 12 until I've seen some of Jodie's season and what type of Doctor she is. Or alternatively, do I just keep the Doctor as 12? I wanted to get you guy's opinions before I do anything :) x**


	38. Chapter 38

The Rani straight up scowled when she saw how Missy was dressed, smoothing down her tightfitting emerald dress self-consciously.

Whilst the Rani was truly beautiful, her red hair practically glowing as it complimented her dress, Missy was breath taking. And what was worse, she knew it, smirking as she walked up on the Doctor's arm.

"You look amazing Ushas." Missy smiled, but her eyes were sparkling in triumph and they both knew that for now, Missy had her beat.

"So, do you, Koschei." The Rani offered graciously, wiping the scowl off her face.

Shaking his head at them, the Doctor offered his other arm to the Rani, "Shall we get going then?"

"Fine." She nodded, taking his arm as they started walking, "Where are we going?"

The Doctor hummed under his breath thoughtfully, "Well I was thinking about that, humans have lots of venues they use for nights out, but some are more likely to incite trouble than others. So, I've decided to steer clear of clubs and bars and instead, we're going to go to a Weatherspoon's."

"What in the name of all that's holy, is a Weatherspoon's?" The Rani questions, her forehead crinkling in confusion.

Grinning, the Doctor pulled them along with him as he explained, "It's a bar and a restaurant, at the same time."

"It's a restaurant that serves drinks." Missy tried to clarify, but the Doctor shushed her.

"No, that's no right, most restaurants serve drinks, it has a proper bar, but it's a restaurant too!"

The Rani exchanged a helpless look with Missy who just shrugged and shook her head quickly. If the Doctor wanted to be foolish than he could, as long as he gave them the night out that he'd promised.

It didn't take long before they had arrived and were seated at a table in the back corner of the establishment. Droves of university students were flocking to the bar, all dressed similarly for a night out.

"It's a restaurant that people treat as a drinking establishment." The Rani whispered to Missy, as she began to understand it, "Humans are very strange, I will never understand why he likes them so much."

Missy chuckled, as the Doctor headed to the bar, "I said that as well, everything is shiny and new to them, they let him see the wonders of the universe as though it's for the first time."

"Koschei." The Rani muttered after a moment, "I don't understand what's happened to you since we last saw one another. And I am honestly glad to see the you I remember from the Academy, at least in part. But with that said, if you are being held against your will, if he's trying to force you to change who you are, I will help you get away from him."

Playing with a plastic straw that had been left on the table, Missy frowned a little as she thought about it. "You're right that I'm a prisoner, but it wasn't his fault. He was called to execute me and made the choice to force an imprisonment instead. But I… I think that I needed to change Ushas, I hurt so badly that I needed to hurt everyone else. For the first time in so long, I feel what others must call peace. Not always, it takes constant work and I'm nowhere near there yet, but I think I'm starting to be."

"What did the Time Lord's do to you?" The Rani asked sadly, running her hand along Missy's arm supportively before taking her hand.

"Tore me to pieces." Missy whispered, her voice so tortured that the Rani's hearts ached for the wide eyed, idealistic classmate she had once known. For all the Master's flaws, she had always been so intensely focused and quick witted, so self-assured, that what she had become was heart breaking.

Squeezing her hand, the Rani nodded to the Doctor, who was leaning over the bar in an attempt to make himself heard over the chatter of students, "Can he help put the pieces back together? Is that what he's trying to do?"

Missy shook her head, "No, I don't think anyone will ever be able to do that, but he helps me order them. And I think that might be enough, at least for now."

Sighing, the Rani tugged on a loose strange of her hair, before leaning back in her chair, "Ok then, if this is what you need. But if the day comes where you can't bear it any more, all you have to do is ask."

Their conversation was cut short by the Doctor returning, who was juggling a tray of pitchers, filled with brightly coloured liquids.

"It's alcohol with fruit in." He explained gleefully, sitting beside Missy and waving one of the pitchers at her, "Aren't humans amazing, they take something perfectly good and ruin it needlessly in an attempt to improve on it!"

"Yes dear," Missy sighed patiently, patting their arm, "This is why they would be better off with a Time Lord overlord, they're far too ridiculous to look after themselves."

Nonetheless she took hold of one of the jugs, eyeing a glass for a moment before shrugging and then just sticking a straw straight into a drink. "This one's mine." She mumbled, already sipping it through the straw.

The Rani grinned as she claimed one for herself, amused by the Doctor's frown at the overlord comment. "So, tell me Theta," She diverted him before he could start a lecture, "What's happened to you since I last saw you?"

Grinning as he chose for himself the most brightly coloured of the drinks, he turned to her, forgetting for now that he was about to launch into yet another debate on ethics with Missy, "Oh you know, saved some planets, did a lot of running. And I got married as well."

Distracted by the discovery of cut up limes in his drink, he missed the Rani's surprised coughing fit on a mouthful of the cocktail she was drinking.

"To you?" She whispered to Missy out the corner of her mouth.

Missy rolled her eyes, "Why does everyone keep assuming that because I have a female body now that Theta and I are suddenly going to fall into each other's arms like members of a lesser species. He married a psychopath, engineered, and raised to kill him, because of course Theta can't even die right. No, he has to marry his murderer first."

Choosing to put her questions aside for later, the Rani just sat back and stared at the two of them. As the Doctor fished through his drink for lime slices and Missy began chewing on the ice cubes in hers, it occurred to her that for all the years they had lived, her two best friends were sometimes worse than children.


	39. Chapter 39

Missy and the Rani howled with laughter as they staggered back through the Tardis doors, propping each other up as they bumped into things across the console room, being guided by an ever-patient Doctor who was doing his best to keep in a straight line himself. Although he was coping a lot better than the two of them.

"Earth alcohol doesn't do much to Gallifreyans." Came a sarcastic chuckle from behind him, as Nardole closed the book he was reading and stood up.

"Nardole!" The Doctor cheered happily, throwing his arms in the air, before becoming confused, "Why are you still here?"

Rolling his eyes, Nardole spun him round by the shoulders and pushed him down the corridor after the two female Gallifreyans who had escaped deeper into the ship, "I wanted to make sure that you all got back safely and were safely locked in before I went to bed. Sure you can stay on your feet sir?" He grinned as the Doctor wobbled again.

Once they were at the kitchen, the Doctor left him behind and pushed forwards alone into the room, draping an arm over the Rani's shoulders who was already halfway through a plate of gingernut biscuits.

Nardole was about to turn and leave when Missy's face suddenly filled his field of vision, leaning in close as she studied him quizzically.

"Can I help you?" He asked after a moment, when she showed no signs of planning to speak.

Nodding thoughtfully, she let herself fall, forcing him to make a decision to catch her or let her hit the ground. It was a close call, but he decided it wasn't worth the headache in the morning if she remembered him failing to catch her.

"You know I'm becoming quite fond of you." She rasped down his ear, clumsily gripping his shoulder as he dragged her to the kitchen table, getting her sat down on a chair.

"Are you?" He asked placatingly, not imagining for a moment that it was anything more than the alcohol talking.

Missy's fingers snaked out and locked around his arm in a vice like grip, "Don't patronise me." She growled. It was all he could do to meet her eyes and nod nervously. "I think I'm starting to understand why he likes his little friends so much. You're going to be my friend."

It was a statement not a question but as she swayed in her chair, humming softly under her breath, Nardole found it endearing that she cared enough to threaten him into it.

"I'll see you in the morning." He told her firmly, before looking pointedly at his arm, which her fingers were still wound tight around.

Looking down, she seemed to notice for herself and uncoiled them.

He didn't get any further reactions from the three of them as he left, firmly closing, and locking the door behind him.

But as he started along the Tardis corridor, Nardole was certain he heard an argument break out over which moon café in the Andromeda system served the best custard creams.

Which was absurd seeing as none of them did.


End file.
